Movement And Action In Learning And Development

This book presents theories and clinical practices for dealing with children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disability or PDD. These are children who have a wide range of disabilities that affect their participation in even the most routine events of daily life, such as eating, dressing, bathing, and so on. Unlike many who are diagnosed with classic autism, however, these children seem to have normal social behavior, normal physical appearance, the ability to learn, hear, see, and move their bodies at will—in other words, none of the well-known reasons that cause autistic and other children to develop differently. These children have the use of all their senses, but their brains are unable to process the information that is fed through them. While much new research is being done in genetics and neurobiology to explain why something in these children has gone fundamentally wrong with their development, clinicians and therapists who deal with them on a daily basis have needed to develop practical therapies based on how the children react to their environments.

Movement and Action in Learning and Development suggests that when therapists plan treatment strategies, children's experiences and interactions with the world should be given the same consideration as the limits of their biological makeups. Too often children diagnosed with PDD are lumped into therapy groups for the classically autistic, where the focus tends to be on the distance senses—hearing and vision. Case studies presented in the first half of the book suggest that for children with PDD, there is a disconnect between the brain and the tactile-kinesthetic senses that involve body movement and physical interaction with the world. Movement, in turn, seems to be connected to perception, interpretation of the world around, and ultimately, the acquisition of knowledge. For children with PDD, "normal" learning seems to be limited not only by their tactile-kinesthetic sense but also by the lack of collaboration between all the senses. The second half of the book demonstrates how these new theories translate into clinical practices.

Audience: Speech-language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, psychologists, special education teachers, as well as other education and medical professionals who deal with children and adults with pervasive developmental disabilities.

This book presents theories and clinical practices for dealing with children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disability or PDD. These are children who have a wide range of disabilities that affect their participation in even the most routine events of daily life, such as eating, dressing, bathing, and so on. Unlike many who are diagnosed with classic autism, however, these children seem to have normal social behavior, normal physical appearance, the ability to learn, hear, see, and move their bodies at will—in other words, none of the well-known reasons that cause autistic and other children to develop differently. These children have the use of all their senses, but their brains are unable to process the information that is fed through them. While much new research is being done in genetics and neurobiology to explain why something in these children has gone fundamentally wrong with their development, clinicians and therapists who deal with them on a daily basis have needed to develop practical therapies based on how the children react to their environments.

Movement and Action in Learning and Development suggests that when therapists plan treatment strategies, children's experiences and interactions with the world should be given the same consideration as the limits of their biological makeups. Too often children diagnosed with PDD are lumped into therapy groups for the classically autistic, where the focus tends to be on the distance senses—hearing and vision. Case studies presented in the first half of the book suggest that for children with PDD, there is a disconnect between the brain and the tactile-kinesthetic senses that involve body movement and physical interaction with the world. Movement, in turn, seems to be connected to perception, interpretation of the world around, and ultimately, the acquisition of knowledge. For children with PDD, "normal" learning seems to be limited not only by their tactile-kinesthetic sense but also by the lack of collaboration between all the senses. The second half of the book demonstrates how these new theories translate into clinical practices.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Patricia Brockman, MD(Ochsner Clinic Foundation)
Description:This book presents a cross-disciplinary perspective on movement and the role it plays in learning and development. Various theoretical perspectives in contemporary developmental psychology are described as well as how they apply to movement-oriented interventions for children with global delays and/or Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD).
Purpose:The purpose is to provide a functional theoretical framework to guide the development of effective interventions for children with PDD who present a unique challenge for their parents and the professionals who work with them. This book uses process-oriented theories of development to define how everyday movement and interaction produce important learning experiences for children with PDD.
Audience:This book is designed for academic and clinical professionals who work with children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). It documents a year-long course on clinical practice with PDD that included parents and professionals from a number of different disciplines including psychology, special education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language therapy.
Features:The first part of this book presents eight theoretical perspectives of development that have evolved from the study of normal development. By combining these views, the author asserts that we can better understand the multifaceted nature of experience and its role in the development of complex behavior. The second part of the book emphasizes the application of these theoretical principles to clinical assessment and interventions. In Part III, the author reviews how these frameworks can be used to challenge current intervention practices and research ideas.
Assessment:To complement the various theoretical perspectives, this book provides detailed descriptions of the GIT (Guided Interaction Therapy) and PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets), two systems-oriented interventions for children and adults with PDD and other nonverbal and verbal disorders. These system-based approaches differ from more traditional interventions used for children with developmental delays and disorders in terms of their focus on the learning process and the sensory experiences used to achieving the desired learning outcomes. This book would be most useful to allied health professionals, particularly occupational therapists and speech therapists, in their work with nontraditional learners, such as children and adults with PDD. Strengths include the focus on the integrated learning process and the use of everyday events as training experiences. A major weakness is the lack of empirical support to predict which touch and movement experiences are most favorable to stimulate nonverbal and verbal development.

Ida J. Stockman, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Audiology & Speech Sciences at Michigan State Univeristy. She is a certified speech-language pathologist and Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She has been affiliated with the Affolter clinical research team since the early 70's. The Michigan State University Symposium on Movement and Action in 1995-96 were among the professional service contributions that led to Distinguished faculty awards from Michigan State University and the Michigan Association for Governing Boards of Institutions of Higher Learning.