Stahlke Adoption

Step 2

Madeline Hunter's teaching model for PI (post-institutionalized) children continues:

Inform the child "what he will be able to do by the end of the instruction, and why that accomplishment is important, useful, and relevant to present and future life situations."

The child needs to know the objective of an activity and why it is important. Communicating this information to a child with language processing difficulties is not easy, however.

Hunter's suggestions include minimizing the number of words, speaking slowly, and using easy, simple terminology. Employing multiple modalities also helps: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.

She also recommends starting with a related concept that the child already understands and building on that idea. This is called creating an "external structure or brain" for the child that helps them access previously-learned information as a foundation for new ideas.

posted by Stahlkes @ 9:54 AM