The Learning Tree Workshop: The Learning Tree Workshop: - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Learning Tree Workshop: The Learning Tree Workshop: Experience-based Learning

Series on Learning Differences, Learning Challenges, and Learning Strengths

Experience-based Learning: Experience based Learning: Language

Build on the child’s experiences with words

that already have meaning

If th hild lik t t id t t ith “ ”

If the child likes to go outside, start with “open” or

“close” the door, or “help”

The child understands the concept that a series of

p sounds conveys a symbol that gets him something he wants

If the child likes moving toy trucks, start with the If the child likes moving toy trucks, start with the

label “truck”

The child will then be motivated to use

b li l i l

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symbolic language in general

Experience-based Learning: Experience based Learning: Math

“Why count blocks when he can count his trucks?”

“How many cookies do I get?” Sense of time

How many seconds do you have to wait to go

• utside to play?

f

When you want something, you feel it, giving time

meaning

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Experience-based Learning: Experience based Learning: Reading

Pick books based on topics the child

already has experience with so it has already has experience with so it has more meaning

Create your own books with the child Create your own books with the child

based on the child’s daily experiences and passions and passions

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Why is This So Important?

*All learning starts with the child’s emotional investment in what he or she is experiencing*

Apple

Taste it, throw it, share it, see it, feel it, smell it

Mommy

Mommy

She helps you; she sets limits; she invokes

feelings of intimacy, connectedness, and safety g y y

Get to know the word by using the word What does the word represent functionally in

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different contexts in life?

Using our Functional Emotional Using our Functional Emotional Stages to Bring a Passage to Life

Describe what is in the passage Who are the characters and what are they

doing?

Are there any relationships?

Wh t th tt d l f th

What are the patterns and goals of the

characters?

Did we like or dislike the passage? Did we like or dislike the passage? Compare the passage with other passages How would we compare this character’s

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How would we compare this character s

experience with our own experiences?

Take a Multi-sensory View

Identify and describe the elements through all

• f the senses

Sight Sound Smell Touch

Taste

Taste Emotional tone

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What Does This Passage What Does This Passage Mean for Me?

Compare the passage to your own

personal experience personal experience

“Would I like to be a character in the

passage?” p g

“If I were a character, how would I feel?”

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Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Difficulty seeing the big picture

Some children become overwhelmed by the trees

(d t il ) d l th bi i t (f t) (details) and lose the big picture (forest)

Black lettering on a page can overload a child who

is visually hypersensitive y yp

MIT research led to two suggestions:

Create a rectangle to isolate a few words,

phrases, or sentences at a time to read

Use a filtered piece of plastic to adjust the color,

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Use a filtered piece of plastic to adjust the color, brightness, and contrast of the page and lettering

Looking at Reading Differences

Challenges in the area of separating or

discriminating

Relates to spelling

Provide the child with the proper support

Is the child hyper reactive or hypo reactive?

Is the child hyper reactive or hypo reactive?

As you help a child, the child becomes more

confident and then will not need as much help p in the future

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Movements Associated with Movements Associated with Language and Reading

Tracking the material across the page

Moving their eye left/right or right/left

How to improve visual tracking:

Play catch

tracking the ball practicing eye

Play catch - tracking the ball- practicing eye

movements and hand movements with things they are seeing Fit th il i t th i h l (Thi ki G

Fit the pencil into the moving hole (Thinking Goes

To School by Harry Wachs)

Coordinate vision and movement

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Pin the tail on the moving donkey with eyes open

Lindamood-Bell Approach

Developed by Pat Lindamood

Emphasize the child moving his or her Emphasize the child moving his or her

mouth and getting the experience Play imitation games

Play imitation games

Let the child see your mouth move and

then copy then copy

Use mirrors

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Speech Pathologists and Speech Pathologists and Oral/Motor Specialists

Knowledge of different types of external

and internal massage that provides and internal massage that provides sensory support for moving the muscles

• f the tongue and mouth
• f the tongue and mouth

Affect-Based Language Curriculum

by Dr Stanley Greenspan and Diane Lewis

by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Diane Lewis

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Our Approach to pp Language and Reading

Reading is a further step in our language Reading is a further step in our language development

How we pick up symbolic language and How we pick up symbolic language and

information and how we communicate it to

• thers

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