Enhanced Milieu Teaching

Instructional Strategy ResearchEnhanced Milieu Teaching : 

Instructional Strategy ResearchEnhanced Milieu Teaching By Brian Gage Azusa Pacific University

What is it? : 

What is it? Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) is a “naturalistic approach to teaching communication skills in everyday communication contexts, which uses environmental arrangement, specific natural prompts for language and functional consequences to increase the frequency and complexity of students’ communication (Smith pp. 456).”

Who is it for? : 

Who is it for? Students with severe disabilities who have significant communicative delays would benefit most from EMT. According to Choi and Kim (2005), milieu teaching is ‘recommended for individuals with disabilities who are at the early stage of language development.’

What does it do? : 

What does it do? This instructional strategy is primarily designed to increase the effectiveness of functional communication for students with severe disabilities.

How does it work? : 

How does it work? EMT uses 3 core techniques, including Incidental teaching. Mand-Model. Time delay.

Incidental Teaching : 

Incidental Teaching “Incidental teaching (Hart & Risley, 1968, 1974) involves the use of normally occurring situations and the child's interest to facilitate language learning.” This method of teaching involves following a students’ lead or interest.

Mand-Model : 

Mand-Model The Mand-Model involves the teacher modeling or manding (requesting) a response from a student. In this technique a teacher will determine what a child’s focus is on and use that focus to illicit a response. This technique is more beneficial for students who lack initiate of speech.

Time-Delay : 

Time-Delay Time-delay has been defined as "nonvocal cues for vocal language" (Halle, Baer, & Spradlin, 1981, p. 390). This technique involves a teacher observes a situation where a student desires an object or other desired thing and waits for a response.

Research : 

Research “Research has demonstrated that Milieu Teaching is effective in teaching a range of productive language skills to individuals with mental retardation and other language-related disabilities (Snell. (A comprehensive review of this literature may be found in kaiser et al., 1992).” “There is considerable evidence that children’s initiations, responses, participation in conversation, and requesting using trained utterances canbe systematically increased using Milieu procedures (Charlop & Walsh 1986; Schwartz er al., 1998).”

Conclusion : 

Conclusion In conclusion, Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) is a combination of teaching techniques that was designed to promote literacy development and encourage the generalization of skills from school to home or the community. EMT uses 3 techniques; incidental teaching, Mand-Modeling, and time delay. There is proven research to support the effectiveness of EMT.

References : 

References Choi H., Kim U. (2005). Autism: Using milieu teaching strategies to instruct functional and generalized language. Journal of Special Education: Theory and Practice, 6(2), pp. 357-375. Halle, J., Baer, D., & Spradlin, J. (1981). Teachers' generalized use of delay as a stimulus control procedure to increase language use in handicapped children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 14, 389- 409. Hart, B. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Establishing the use of descriptive adjectives in the spontaneous speech of disadvantaged children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 109-120. Smith, E. C. (2006) Teaching Students With Special Needs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Snell, M.E. & Brown, F. (2006). Instruction of Students with Severe Disabilities. (Sixth Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.