Movement and Action in Learning and Development: Clinical Implications for Pervasive Developmental Disorders

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.

Table of Contents:
Introductory Commentary: A Theoretical Frameworks for Intervention with Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Interrelation of Action, Perception, and Cognition in Development: An Historical Perspective. The Central Role of Action in Typical and Atypical Development. Plasticity of Somatosensory and Motor Systems in Developing and Mature Primate Brains. Constructive Manipulatory Action and the Origin of Cognition in Human and Nonhuman Primates. The Event Basis of Conceptual and Language Development. The Integration of Expression into the Stream of Everyday Activity. From Action to Interaction as Primary Root of Development. Guided Interaction Therapy: Principles of Clinical Intervention. PROMPT: A Tactually Grounded Treatment Approach to Speech Production Disorders. The Multiple Faces of Clinical Efficacy. Potential Challenges to Clinical Practices and Research.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
"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." -DOODY ENTERPRISES, INC. "Movement and Action in Learning and Development has as its focus the understanding and treatment of children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). These children exhibit both verbal and nonverbal deficits that cannot be accounted for by visual, auditory, or motor impairments and who do not always fit the standard criteria for autism. Such children are often at the bottom of the developmental ladder. In this text the authors emphasize the role of sensory-motor experience in learning. The focus is on the process by which children learn and the specific role of action in learning. This book provides a fresh approach to the treatment of children with PDD. It is quite literally a "hands on" approach in which the clinician physically guides the child through nonverbal events and the production of speech about events. The book provides a perspective that will interest both clinicians and investigators." --Patricia Broen, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota "Stockman has assembled and eloquently integrated theoretical perspectives from a bevy of cutting-edge scholars and forward-thinking master clinicians to present an exciting treatise on the central role of movement, action and interaction in human development. This book is a "must read" for clinicians involved in neuro-habilitation and rehabilitation as well as for researchers and theoreticians interested in normal and abnormal human development. The ideas set forth in this volume will surely set the course for future ground-breaking advances in rehabilitation for individuals with PDD and many other specific neuro-developmental disorders and for some individuals with aphasia." -Paula A. Square, PhD, Professor, University of Toronto "Therapy based on "Interaction in Real Life Events" is the key to unlocking the mystery of successful intervention in PDD. Stockman and her colleagues have done an excellent job explaining in detail why the GIT and PROMPT approaches are working, and why traditional approaches have been so frustrating. The theories presented in this book not only make sense, they are also cost effective and reality based. Educators and clinicians need this information to re-design current treatment methodologies. Utilizing the GIT and PROMPT approaches with PDD could revolutionize clinical practice skills! This book should be required reading for any professional working with the PDD population." -Karin Bonfils-Kleinhans, OTR/L, Neuro-Rehab, Grass Valley, California and Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Out-Pt Center; Occupational Therapy, Grass Valley, California "This volume establishes a very beneficial framework of reference in which action, perception and cognition are closely tied together with a view to close the gapping chasm between theoretical models of child development and repeated experiences of real children in real life." -Ami Klin, Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine