From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Delia" Subject: Re: Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 09:45:45 +0900 Message-ID: <42220D06.BB25034@yahoo.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from gate.perex.cz (gate.perex.cz [85.132.177.35]) by alsa.jcu.cz (ALSA's E-mail Delivery System) with ESMTP id 9A3EF17E for ; Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:24:44 +0100 (MET) Received: from yahoo.dk (unknown [220.167.197.184]) by gate.perex.cz (Perex's E-mail Delivery System) with ESMTP id 9D33E991F1 for ; Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:24:40 +0100 (MET) Sender: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net Errors-To: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: To: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org List-Id: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org Hello, Buy your Press Kription THRRr uuGzz We truly hope our we b s ite will be a one-stop Sy ber eFA. ARM Sy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ eCOPY the A ddre,ss bel ow and iPASte in your iWebb bro,wser: ssy.maintaininar.com/?zz=3Dlowcost +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE PARENT arrived back on the scene. She gave me a tape by Dr. Laura Meyers from UCLA. I listened to that tape eight times. I listened over an= d over and heard the same thing again and again. Ms. Meyers said, 'These ki= ds may need to hear a word many times (perhaps 72 times) before they ever sa= y a word. A computer can be patient and say it the same way every time.' Now = I understood. I was not patient enough. I did not allow the student to hear the words over and over. I was interrupting their learning by interjectin= g, when they were totally engrossed in what they were doing. I was asking questions they were not ready to answer. They were just learning language= . They didn't have the answers yet.=20 >>From that day on there were new rules in my classroom. Each student was t= o have an adult 'communication partner' at the computer. This adult was to = sit with the child, not saying a word until the student stopped and looked at the adult or in some other way indicated that communication was desired. Then the adult was only to encourage the student by saying the word, nodd= ing the headand smiling. The student was allowed to continue his or her learning. When the student imitated a word, the adult was to respond appropriately. NO QUESTIONS WERE ALLOWED during this beginning phase. The students were just learning to talk.=20 Another rule implemented was that the student was allowed to spend as muc= h or as little time at the computer as he/she wished. There would be no mor= e, 'We aren't finished, yet.' The student would to be in charge of his own learning at the computer.=20 And what were the results? Let me tell you some stories:=20 Mark at 27 months looked ?normal?. He came from a good family who provide= d lots of stimulation. Mark had one word--'ba' as in 'Ball.' Everything was 'ba.' After a few days of orientation in the classroom, I presented the computer. The first day he sat at the computer for 20 minutes and pressed the ball, bus, bee on the IntelliKeys keyboard over and over again. He th= en looked at me and pointed to the ball and said ?Ba? Then he pointed to the bee and said 'Be' and the Bus and said 'Bu.' I was astonished and his mot= her started to cry.=20 Until that day, he could not hear the language differences. He asked for the computer every day by pointing to it. He was allowed to spend time ea= ch day on the noun program. One year later he was talking in full sentences = and was staffed into normal preschool.=20 Brian was a boy with Down's Syndrome. He was taking several medications. Brian came from a nurturing family and extended family who provided him w= ith every opportunity. His mother was a teacher and wanted what was best for him. He exhibited no language and was considerably behind his other frien= ds with Down?s Syndrome. We set up a noun program at school. At first he see= med disinterested. He looked at the pictures and sucked his thumb. The more w= e encouraged him to engage the keyboard, the more he sucked his thumb. We t= hen paired him with a child who was very interested in the noun program. Suddenly the two were fighting over who was next to pick a picture. He worked several times a week at the computer. At his 3-year IEP, the team shook their heads. They didn't understand. Despite the track record of ma= ny students with Down?s Syndrome, Brian's language was his best skill. I smi= led and his mother winked at me.=20 Toren came to me at age 32 months. He had 2 words: Ma Ma and Bye Bye. He could not focus, but ran around the room. His mother was convinced I was going to have him cured by his third birthday. I told her I was no miracl= e worker, but we'd do what we could during the next 4 months. Immediately w= e started structuring Toren's day. I went home and worked up a program call= ed 'Toren's Nouns'. The first day I showed Toren the program, he looked at i= t for 10-15 seconds and then left the computer. The next day he stayed abou= t 30 seconds. Each day he built up more time at the computer. By the second week, he would sit on my lap for 10 minutes pressing whichever word he wanted to hear. But he spoke no sounds, no words. Three weeks passed. I began berating myself. 'See, Jo, you thought this noun program was so gre= at. Look at Toren, he's not learning anything.' The fourth week Toren walked over to the computer, picked up the overlay from the IntelliKeys keyboard= , pointed to 10 different words and approximated each word. That day, I cri= ed. Get back to you later,=20 Nona Black ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642