Clients Last Name Goes Here 1 Description of the program and its effect on the communication skills In this

section the focus of the paper will be drawn at the three important aspects underlying the pre-linguistic intervention applied by a classroom teacher in McCathrens (2000) research. They are: 1)the needs 2) the strategy 3)the effects. Michael from McCathrens (2000) research, being 3 years and 6 months, still had a number of severe speech and language disabilities. Michael was not able to speak. Despite the fact that his teacher demonstrated signs, he hardly ever was able to use them. He seemed unable or probably disinterested to copy them or employ them as a means for an initiation. Even though Michael obtained certain speech language treatment privately as well as in school, the therapists, who had attempted to teach him sign language, ceased the treatment on account of that Michael seemed unable to utilize it on a regular basis. As far as his school time and his achievements are concerned, his typical classroom behavior indicated lack of interest in classroom activities. What is more, he demonstrated likewise that he was disinterested in toys. On top of that, Michael had no symbolic play skills. From the concise description of the problem it could be maintained that Michaels main problem was the lack of interest, based on his inability to do what others could. It could be that it was not merely him not being able to do something, but being not stimulated enough for an expression of his request or any sort of response to the environmental arrangement or change of it. The appearance of interest would trigger the new motivation that could provide an ongoing stimulus to a certain action within the boundaries of the augmentative and alternative communication available to him. This circumstance could encourage repetitive action and, as a result, a progress in surmounting the speech disability to a certain socially appraisable extent.

Clients Last Name Goes Here 2 The failure of the previous therapist could be explained by that those specialists were unable to identify some of Michaels interests and mainly concentrated on the mechanics of teaching him sign language, rather creating a learning environment for that. In other terms, this need could be characterized as the need of being on the same level with Michael. One more important factor, which appeared to be ineffective in the previous learning scenario with the therapists, was that it seemed to be more of a teacher- student situation or teller-doer. It was mechanic. It could be claimed that it limited Michaels abilities to demonstrate his progress and existent skills, and contributed to his reserved behavior. The need of a friend-friend environment was possibly likewise the case there. It could be argued that if Michaels interests had been taken equally into account, in such a way that he could comprehend that he decided the situation, he led it and was expected to lead it, he, later on, would have felt more inclined to respond to the outer input. The PMT intervention strategies used with Michael were chosen for the reason that they allowed leverages not used in traditional therapies and provided much more additional space for teacher-student interaction , which were quite instrumental in meeting the childs needs for the communication environment. To be exact, the teacher followed the childs lead by means of talking about and playing with his focus of interest. This put the teacher and the child on the same level. This was the foundation to build on using the PMT techniques like communication prompts, imitation, play routines, and environmental changes. The connection was established between the teacher and the child, and this could be suggested to be the main achievement of PMT. Once it is set up, gradual progress is facilitated to learn both ways for the teacher to learn the childs language and way of thinking or looking at things, meeting him where he is, confirming him in that and, once he feels the comfort of connection between the two, to offer him to learn the teachers language, bringing up in his communication experience.

Clients Last Name Goes Here 3 In terms of the effects of the intervention, it should be noted that Michaels increased use of eye contact, vocalizations, gestures, symbolic play skills, use of signs to express his wants and to refer to objects and pictures, all speak volumes for the fact that it is extremely important to find a way into a particular childs world and earn the right to abide there. Once this is achieved, the natural process of mutual learning mechanisms will be set into action where two living beings will discover and learn from each other. It could be said that this process will be intentional on the part of the teacher, but natural on the childs side, but the techniques of PMT are able to create such an environment where the given child is encouraged to look at and interact with the person without pressure. The reason for this is possibly that the person in PMT environment is treated by the child not as a teacher, but as a partner, a friend to trust his world with.

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References Clark, C., 2006. Iron kingdom: the rise and downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, Cambridge: Belknap Press. Nevins, S., 2010. Most men dont crywhy? [Online] (updated 4 Feb. 2010) Available at: <http://www.wowowow.com/relationships/most-men-dont-cry-why-sheila-nevins-439529> [Accessed 5 Feb. 2010].