ASSOCIATION METHOD in Teaching-Learning

Content

The Association Method (History)

Principles of the Association Method

Features of the Association Method (DuBard)

COMPONENTS OF MULTISENSORY INTERVENTION THROUGH THE ASSOCIATION METHOD

THE ASSOCIATION METHOD DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

Incremental Levels of the Instructional Program (Vertical)

Correlative Programs (Horizontal)

Steps of Instruction

Conclusion

References

The Association Method (History)

Mildred McGinnis (the late Director Emeritus, Division of Speech Correction and Pathology, Central Institute for the Deaf St. Louis, MO) said "it is called the Association Method because it develops and associates systematically each of the several specific skills that must be coordinated for the development of ability to understand and use oral communication" It is described by Dr. Etoile Dullard (Retired director, School for Children with Language Disorders, University of Southern Mississippi) as "a systematic multi-sensory approach for teaching language and speech to children with multiple, complex and little understood difficulties in language learning." The procedures are not the cure-all. They will not eliminate the aphasia, symbolic disorder, language disorder, etc. The teaching procedures are specifically designed to reduce or alleviate the language-disordered child's difficulties in decoding, organizing, associating, storing and retrieving information pertinent to language and speech. The procedures are highly structured but can become more flexible when an experienced clinician makes appropriate judgments.

The Association Method as developed by Mildred McGinnis has as its ultimate goal automaticity in language. Her book. Aphasic Children: Identification and Treatment by the Association Method was published in 1963 through the Alexander Graham Bell Association.

Principles of the Association Method:

--Receptive work follows expressive work

–Teach one small element at a time

 --Assure success --Build on previously mastered material

 --Written form accompanies all that is taught

 --Modification of temporal rate

 --All spoken items are associated with visual symbol

--Complete recall is expected without teacher prompting

--Structure, repetition, and sameness are required in the child's environment

 --With all new material, children are required to say, read, lip-read, listen and write

 --Based on Motor Theory of Speech Perception (vocal response provides an acoustic stimulus)

Features of the Association Method (DuBard)

--No program to buy or sell

--Cursive script is used

--Color differentiation

--Northampton Symbols

COMPONENTS OF MULTISENSORY INTERVENTION THROUGH THE ASSOCIATION METHOD

• VISUAL

• AUDITORY

• TACTILE

• MOTOR-KINESTHETIC

• PHONETIC (EXPLICIT PHONICS INSTRUCTION)

• LINGUISTIC (INCLUDES SPECIFIC COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION)

• STRUCTURED CONTENT

• SYSTEMATIC IMPLEMENTATION

• INCREMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION

• CUMULATIVE

THE ASSOCIATION METHOD DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

1. No program to buy or sell

2. Use of Northampton symbols

3. Precise articulation required from the beginning

4. Cursive script

5. Color differentiation

6. Teaching of phonemes progresses to syllables, words of gradually increasing length, sentences/questions, stories/questions

7. Modification of temporal rate

8. Individual child's book made as he/she progresses through the method

9. Instruction in phonetic rules is delayed until upper levels of the Association Method.

Incremental Levels of the Instructional Program (Vertical)

1. Single phonemes: The child is taught to imitate, produce, write, recall, and associate the spoken forms of speech sounds with the written form.

2. Drop drills: The previously learned speech sounds are combined into syllables.

3. Cross drills nouns : A systematic procedure used to teach words with associative reinforcement.

4. Repetitive sentences and corresponding questions : The child is taught basic sentences (i.e., I see a __; This is a __. )

5. Animal stories: Children are taught stories about animals, using previously taught language in addition to new concepts and vocabulary (e.g., action verbs, adjectives).

6. Inanimate object stories: Children are taught stories using the pronoun "it".

7. Personal description stories: Children are taught stories using the personal pronouns (I, my, she, her, he, his) as well as other vocabulary and concepts. Previously taught language is reinforced in these stories.

8. Prepositions : In addition to the preposition concepts, corresponding question forms are taught.

9. Round-up stories: These stories "round-up" and incorporate the various aspects of vocabulary, concepts, sentence structure and question language taught up to this stage.

10. Present progressive verbs : The concepts and sentence structure associated with the present progressive tense are introduced.

11. Past tense verbs : The concepts and sentence structure associated with the past these are introduced.

12. Experience stories: The child must use sentence structure, concepts, and past tense language previously taught to relate a recent experience.

13. Future tense verbs : The concepts and sentence structure associated with the future tense are introduced.

14. Imagination stories: The child must draw on his past experience (with language) in telling what might have happened to bring about the result in the picture used for building a story and what might happen in the future.

Correlative Programs (Horizontal):

--Writing development

--Gross motor development

--Pre-academic/academic skills

--Calendar/clock work

--Mathematical concepts

--Social/interactive skills

--Sensory processing therapy

Steps of Instruction

1. Speech drill: This provides practice in the articulation of new sounds and sequences of sounds. Speech drill provides the occasion for dealing with problems in speech production and strengthening memory for the written form.

2. Associating for meaning: In the speech drill, the child produced, from the written form, the sequence of sounds for a noun. Now, both the spoken and written forms are associated with pictures for meaning.

3. Writing practice: Initia lly, the child's skill in writing is developed through drill and practice, independent of language training. Now through copying the child's writing responses are directly associated with learning of language.

4. Visual-auditory recognition: For auditory recognition, the child listens to the teacher's presentation without watching her. The intent is to provide the child only auditory stimulation. When new language is introduced, the teacher points to the written form, while she speaks, and the child listens. Then, auditory stimulus only is provided.

5. Saying from memory: The child says the words associated with the picture without reference to the written form, or to teacher prompting. The child must respond with speech to the picture alone.

6. Writing from memory: The child writes, from memory, the word or words associated with the picture. This last step becomes part of the pattern as soon as the children have developed some writing skill.

Conclusion

As each new bit of language (at first, single nouns -but later, sentences) is learned, the children are taught to discriminate it from those previously learned. At first this teaching must take place in a highly structured way. Gradually, as they become more sure of themselves, and are able to respond more easily, they must be guided and directed in using the language that they have learned, frequently, and in a more spontaneous way, both in and out of the classroom.

This Method has been used successfully at Magnolia Speech School since 1956. It has helped children with the following diagnoses learn to communicate: receptive and expressive aphasia, dyslexia, traumatic head injury, autism, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, and pervasive developmental disorder. Some of these children have also had other complicating conditions such as hyperactivity, behavioral problems and emotion disturbances.

References

1.   www.wikipedia.com

2.   www.usm.edu/dubard/associat.html