Keesha

Chapter 9 Using Effective Instructional Strategies

I chose to write about Prelingistic Milieu Teaching. PMT improves language acquisition outcomes for children with intellectual disabilities. PMT teaches children with intellectual disabilities who do not speak to make frequent, clear requests or comments with gestures or sounds, and making eye contact while looking at the person with whom they are communicating. There are several steps to this teaching: Step 1 is Prompt the child to communicate. The child's parent or the child's teacher communicates with the child through words and gestures. Step 2 Prompt child to initiate..The teacher may provide a verbal prompt to the child to imitate a sign or a word with reference to an activity that the child likes.ex.... the child may like to play with dolls. Step 3 Vocally imitate the child's resultant vocalizations. The teacher or parent provides an exact imitation of the child's vocalization response to the prompt ex. you may say "Say Doll" and the child may say "Da" then you will say "Dada" vocalizing and expanding" Da". ...Step 4 Comply with the child's request. The teacher complies with the child's request from step 3 by repeating "Da" and gives the child the doll. Step 5 Recode the child's communication act. The teacher or parent can now hold out the doll in front of the child and ask in question form" Do you want the doll"? Step 6 Acknowledge the child's communicative act. The teacher or parent has to reinforce what the child did.So when the child takes the doll, they may say "You asked for the doll"! Step 7 Talk to the child..The teacher or parent should continue to reinforce interaction with the child and say"Good, you asked for the doll, very good!".....I believe these strategies will work. I know that it is alot of hard work to communicate with students who can't express themselves verbally, so using gestures, eye contact and vocalizing are great ways to get them to communicate............. Keesha

Keesha I think this was a great responsive. It seemed like you have a great understanding of the concept. I understood it a lot better after reading your response. I feel pushing students (not too hard) will help them with their studies and will get them to try harder.

Rohanna

Keesha, I love that you chose to write about this. This was the other thing I couldn't decide which one to write my blog on. PMT is such a great help to intellectual disabled students. It helps them to communicate better with other students, teachers, friends, and family. This will boost their confidence and help the child in social situations. The different strategies mentioned are a great way to help the student. I remember when I was in grammar school, students with intellectual disabilities were just sent to the trailer with other students who had speech impediments. Through these steps, the student can individual learn how to communicate better with others, as well as the appropriate way to do so. This will help the student even more in school as well as in their near future. Great blog! Shawna Reynolds

Chapter 7 Understanding students with Emotional or Behavorial Disorders

This Chapter really touches home with me. One of my closest friends has bipolar. Bipolar Disorder is a condition when a person has mood swings. They can be happy, sad, anxious, upset, tired, depressed, and full of energy in one hour. Bipolar people have their highs and lows. We've been extremely close since grammer school. Growing up, I just thought she was" wild", and that she liked to fight. The teacher always threw her out of the classroom because she was very loud, or she wouldnt stop talking. When we grew up to be teenagers, her mother told her about the disorder. She explained to her what bipolar was and that she had it, and that my friend may have it as well. Once her mother took her to a doctor and she recieved medicine, she was fine. As a child, she would always get in trouble, she talked very fast, sometimes you couldn't understand what she was saying. She was usually excited most of the time, but there were plenty of times when she would get sad, and go into a corner and cry. Now that she's older, she's coping with bipolar a little better. She has five children, and everytime she gave birth, she would get depressed and have to go to the hospital to the behavioral unit to seek help. They would put her on medicine which made her incoherent, she would stay in the hospital at least three months out of a year. This was stressful for me because I am the god-mother of all her children, so I would have to help her mother take care of the children. Her mother has bipolar as well, bipolar is heridary. So far, none of my god-children has been diagnosed. She goes to therapy every Wednesday to help her cope with the disorder, but she refuses to take the medicine. I have attended some therapy sessions with her. The doctors counsel family members of bipolar patients because the disorder affects everyone in the family. As teachers we can't be quick to judge. We can't say "This kid is bad". We don't know our students background, we have to pay close attention to our students because we will get students in our classroom with emotional or behavorial disorders. It is our job to make sure these students get diagnosed, and receive the help that they need so they can function properly in our classroom.

Creating the culture of positive behavior

I have learned that you can not keep yelling and screaming at your students because they will turn around and yell back at you, or they will begin to adapt to this treatment. You have to use a tone that they understand. Teachers need to be respectful towards children if they want that respect in return. Teachers have to change their behavior as well and stop saying to children "you cant do this and you cant do that". Teachers need to explain why a student cant do this or that. Reward systems make students feel important and students need to know their expectations. Expectations should be inforced on day one of school. Let students know what you expect of them. You need to teach a child something before you expect them to do it. Teachers should change rules to expectations and punishment to positive behavior.When I enter my classsroom, I will let know students know what I expect of them. I will put these expectations on the wall where students can see them everyday. I will reinforce my expectations at the beginning of every class. I will show my students what I expect of them ex..I will show them how to properly walk in the hallway without being rowdy, I will show them how to line up to enter and exit the classrrom.

Autism chapter 11 Everyone with autism is not the same. They all behave differently and learn differently just like anyone else. Autism has six distinct characteristics. Atypical language development is when a student with autism focuses on one topic only, has limited gestures and a limited conversation. Atypical social development is when the autistic student has a lack of peer relationships, fails to share enjoyment, interests, and achievements with others. Repetitive behavior involves repeated movements and verbalizations. Problem behavior is put into four categories for autistic children, self-injurious, aggression, tantrums, and property destruction. Sensory and movement disorders include abnormal movements of the face, head, trunk, limbs, and eye movements. Some people with autism display the unusual savant syndrome, which consists of extraordinary talents in areas such as mechanical abilities, calendar calculating, musical ability, mathematical skills, and memorization.