a new Genie -- a suggestion

[Cristina McKean]

Hi there,

I would suggest that you talk to a Speech Pathologist. there are many intervention approaches for pre-verbal children which have a good evidence base but which need to be tailored to the individual child's strengths, preferences and needs. They would integrate a range of alternative and augmentative communication systems (including signs, symbols and objects of reference) with spoken language.

These could be incorporated into play based routines and care routines. If there are difficulties with shared attention and social cognition these could also be addressed through approaches such as intensive interaction. If autism is suspected then PECS is a very helpful approach for promoting intentional communication through symbol use.

All approaches should follow the child's lead and be linked to communicative routines and items where the child is motivated to interact.

An assessment by a speech pathologist is recommended as the approaches differ depending on the needs, strengths and preferences of the child

I can send some links to articles if you would find that helpful.

Cristina

Lecturer<http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/staff/profile/cristina.mckean> | Speech and Language Sciences |Newcastle University
Research Fellow<http://www.mcri.edu.au/research/research-projects/centre-for-childhood-language/our-people/%22%20%5Cl%20%22Cristina>|Centre for Research Excellence in Child Language|MCRI

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These approaches
On 18 Dec 2013, at 15:41, Denis Donovan <dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com<mailto:dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com>>
 wrote:

I think Eileen's suggestion makes the most sense. I've attached just the first few pages of the beginning of chapter 4 of Robbins Burling's book The Talking Ape -- which I've retitled "How to Learn a New Language From Scratch." The title of Burling's book suggests that it's probably irrelevant but Burling provides an absolutely fascinating account of how one can communicate when neither party shares a common language. In this case, there are three parties. Since one goal is to promote a facilitative and enduring mother-child relationship, I suggest thinking about how the method Burling describes might help meet your needs. In any case, as I mentioned, it's fascinating.

Best,

Denis

- - -
Denis M. Donovan, M.D., M.Ed., F.A.P.S.
Director, EOCT Institute

Medical Director, 1983 - 2006
The Children's Center for Developmental Psychiatry
St. Petersburg, Florida

P.O Box 47576
St. Petersburg, FL 33743-7576
Phone: 727-641-8905
DenisDonovan at EOCT-Institute.org<mailto:DenisDonovan at EOCT-Institute.org>
dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com<mailto:dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com>

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On Dec 18, 2013, at 9:09 AM, Eileen Brann wrote:

One suggestion is to begin teaching basic, functional sign language, pairing it with words in the child's native language.
Hopefully the child will receive audiological, cognitive and language evaluations, but this would be where I would begin to foster communication skills.

Eileen M. Brann, PhD, CCC-SLP
Speech-lanuage Pathologist
Assistant Professor
Communication Disorders
Governors State University
Illinois


On Dec 18, 2013, at 7:49 AM, Annick De Houwer <annickej at yahoo.com<mailto:annickej at yahoo.com>> wrote:

Dear Eva,

This is indeed heartbreaking. I hope the child is not too scared to be touched, so can benefit from loving hugs.
As far as language is concerned I would plead most urgently to work with the language/dialect the child has so far heard (however infrequently) - the child may understand something in that language. Here the child's mother may be helpful (or people in Sweden she knows from her homeland who use the same language). Building up mother-child interaction would be an important emotional aspect of the healing process, too, I would think, if the mother still has any sort of interest in the child. But in any event I would not try to introduce Swedish yet. I recommend trying to build on what little the child may know of the first language.
There may be a little bit of hope here.

A sad story indeed.

Best Christmas wishes to everyone--

Annick

Annick De Houwer
On Wednesday, December 18, 2013 7:49:48 AM UTC+1, Eva.be<http://eva.be/>... at gmail.com<http://gmail.com> wrote:
Dear info-childes community,

In my spare-time I am politically involved in "social-welfare" , where we have to decide about support to children and families in need, and the following is a case that we learned of yesterday on our monthly meeting.

Last week arrived to Sweden a mother, who has been living herer for the last 8-10 years, with her child that she has fetched from her previous homeland. They went straigth to the social-welfare office and the mother declared that she is unable to take care of her child.

The child was therefore transferred to an institution dedicated to children in different kinds of need.

However, when the situation became a bit more clear they found out that the child's needs were not of the usual kind in any way.

The child was born about 10 years ago, and the mother said that she more or less immediately found out that there was something wrong with the child, and that she could not take care of him. Thus, the child was left to a relative, who kept the child in a room and fed the child through a hole under the door.

Thus, the child can hardly any words, eventually a few words in his native language (which is completely unrelated to Swedish). The child is reluctant to new food and eats mainly porridge and milk, and they say that they suspect that the child has some sort of autism or maybe hearing loss. Furthermore, there are scars on the child's head and body, so he seems to have been physically abused also.

So, suddenly we have a child here who resembles the famous Genie case, and we are urgently in need for advice about how to help this child in the best way.

I am so grateful for any advice or links to references that you can provide tho help in this heart-breaking case.

Sincerely,

Eva Berglund

Department of Special Education

Stockholm University


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<Burling-HowToLearnANewLanguageFromScratch.pdf>

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