Milieu+Teaching

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MILIEU TEACHING

A. Uses the same strategies as Responsive Interaction, but also uses behavioral strategies. It focuses on prompting for speech and communication

B. Particularly effective with children who are in the early stages of language learning, such as children who do not spontaneously put more than 3 words together.

C. Milieu Teaching Strategies: 1. Imitate, repeat, expand, model, and prompt 2. Incidental teaching: teach to the child to request. Works well with children who request verbally or nonverbally often 3. Manding (requesting): adult initiated by setting the context in which the child will make choices or provide the item. Children should be encouraged to make choices in virtually every interaction or activity. 4. Time delay and prompt fading: Do not immediately prompt the child to engage in the target language; pause or wait for a few seconds to see what the child does 5. Descriptive talk and physical imitation: describe what the child is doing or interacting with, or imitate what the child is doing and teach the child to imitate you.

D. Things to remember: 1. Use exaggerated affect and intonation to create captivating social interactions within which embed social communication and gestures. 2. Prompt more complex communication 3. Honor communicative intent of the child even if it is in inappropriate form and then correct or prompt a more appropriate form (Example: A child screams because they want a toy. Let child know you understand that they want the toy, but a better way to get the toy is by saying "Toy, please" or "I want the toy, please") 4. Encourage other forms of communication such as gestures as well as speech

E. Potential Challenges: 1. Motivating natural contexts cannot be created for all target language skills and concepts 2. May be difficult to sustain attention or to maintain motivation with social or natural reinforcer 3. May not be structured enough for some implementors 4. Data collections can be more difficult than discrete trials

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