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Here are a few words of greeting from Dr. Ellyn Arwood, CCC-SLP,
the founder of APRICOT, Inc.
"Welcome to the APRICOT, Inc. Web Site, featuring information useful
to individuals who have difficulties in the following areas: reading,
writing, comprehension, spelling, learning, punctuation, behavior,
time management, social interactions, inattention, following directions,
following a schedule, finishing assignments, planning, organization,
etc. The success of our approach does not rest on our testimony, but
on the comments from the individuals and their families who have been
helped.
APRICOT, Inc products, services, courses and written literature have
helped hundreds of individuals improve academic skills (reading,
writing, spelling etc.), earn better grades, improve promptness and
dependability, improve social interactions, increase skills for
successful careers, enhance self-esteem -- in short making a positive
impact on the way the person functions in life and feels about life."
Apricot, Inc. was formed to provide services based on Pragmaticism
Methodology. The term pragmaticism was coined by Charles Sanders Peirce
in the 1800's to refer to the natural consequences of human language. Dr.
Arwood is the contemporary originator of Pragmaticism Methodology which
is an application of this concept to assessment/remediation of communication
disorders. Pragmaticism Methodology is not a program but a training process
based on a theoretically sound and logical approach. Through Pragmaticism
Methodology an individual uses communication to affect learning for meeting
basic needs, for developing academic skills such as reading and writing,
and for refining social interaction styles. Arwood's Pragamaticism Methodology
is currently used by individuals working in public schools, state supported
agencies, university clinics, private clinics, regional rehabilitation centers,
and hospitals. The effectiveness of Pragmaticism Methodology has been documented
qualitatively and quantitatively with different populations including the
severely-profoundly handicapped as well as the mildy handicapped. Apricot,
Inc. was founded on the premise that practitioners and theoreticians from
many disciplines must work together in order to provide quality assessment
and remediation for the communicatively handicapped.
The material presented in the following paragraphs are excerpts from
back issues of "News from Apricot, Inc." These Question and
Answer exchanges were a semi-regular feature in the Apricot Newsletter;
they provided a forum for parents, teachers and clinicians to obtain Dr.
Arwood's views on a variety of issues. The "ink and paper and postage
stamp" newsletter ceased publication several years ago because of the
labor-intensive aspects of such a project. Please check the note at the
bottom of this page for information about purchasing copies of the original
newsletters from our archives. Also, check there for some remarks about
what we see "just over the horizon" about the prospects for reviving
the newsletter using electronic publishing via the Internet. (This material
is used here with permission from Apricot, Inc. It is copyrighted by Apricot,
Inc. Further reproduction or dissemination without the express written consent
of Apricot, Inc. is unlawful).
Questioner:
Dr.Arwood:
- Pragmatics refers to the use of either verbal or non verbal behavior
in context. The way in which a child initiates a verbal interaction or
the nonverbal way a child walks across the room to signal a listener are
examples of considering behavior in a context. The study of such behavior
is called pragmatics. The study of pragmatics was used by the American
philosophers during the latter half of the 19th Century to denote an area
of philosophy which dealt with the interactions between science, God, and
mankind. These philosophical writings, speeches, letters were best known
as the pragmatists' writing of people such as William James. One of the
pragmatists, Charles Sanders Peirce, created a new term, pragmaticism,
to denote the difference between what can be held constant and measured
in the external world and what is altered through a person's use of symbols.
According to Peirce, in the use of symbols, the final representation is
always greater than the pieces. So, an idea such as "There goes the
cat!" is different than the addition of each of the separate pieces
(there + goes + the + cat). Since the use of use of signs and symbols is
uniquely characteristic of people, Peirce wanted this term, "pragmaticism",
to also represent such uniqueness. Thus , when verbal behavior is used,
there are consequences within the learning system as well as effects upon
the listener that are different than the individual meanings of the words.
These semiotic (sign usage) consequences raise the level of meaning of
the symbols in unmeasured and non quantifiable ways -- thus, the difference
between pragmatics and pragmaticism.
Questioner:
- Are a high percentage of those children labeled as behaviorally disordered
actually children with language/ learning problems?
Dr. Arwood:
- Yes. I gave a presentation in Nebraska in October, 1987 titled "Learning
How to Behave" and what I meant by that is that a child who is trying
to organize a particular way to behave does so only with language. If the
child doesn't have the language, then the child behaves according to the
situational information without concern for the consequences. Many of our
children who have behavior disorders do not have the language tools to
mediate their behavior with their learning; so, they get part of the information
such as "Sit down", but, they don't get all the information such
as "Sit down in your seat." The result is that they are sitting
down next to somebody rather than in their own seat and they are in trouble
again. Many of our kids try to follow instructions and to comply, but they
can't process the words and match the words with their behavior. In other
words, they don't have the language to mediate learning and behavior, so
they end up in trouble. The children that are identified at three and four
as having the potential for behavior problems because of such things as
aggressiveness, inappropriate responses to others' interactions, and problems
with socialization are also those kids who are at risk for language/learning
problems. Sometimes a study of some of the case histories of these young
children show them becoming juvenile delinquents in later years. In Oregon,
we have classes of kids who have been diagnosed as behaviorally disordered,
and so far I have not met one of those children who did not have a language/learning
problem.
Questioner:
- How are learning and behavior related to each other?
Dr. Arwood:
- The child's behavior (his/her ability to read, write, talk, walk, draw,
move, etc.) is a representation of what's going on in the child's learning
system. That is, as the child gets information and is able to use the information
physically in the biological system, then the representation of that input
is the behavior itself. So whether or not the child is able to comply or
follow-through after being given directions, and so forth, depends upon
how much information the child is able to organize and therefore to represent,
according to the way we expect him/her to represent it through our conventions.
Questioner:
- How does language help change a child's behavior?
Dr. Arwood:
- Language is the tool for learning. So if you have a child who has an
impaired learning system, the more language you give that child, the more
information that child has to function. Therefore, the more language we
give the child, the better the tool, the better the functioning, and the
better the behavior. We have to provide lots of information to our language/learning
impaired children. For example, if we have a child who has hurt another
child, but does not understand the relationship between hitting and hurting,
we may have to present a verbal sequence such as this. Q: Did you fight
with that child on the playground? A: No . . . Q: Did you hit that child
on the playground? A: No . . . Q: Did your hand touch that child's face?
A: Yes . . . Q: When your hand touched that child's face did his nose bleed?
A: Yes . . . . . . . . . .Well, the this is what it looked like... Then
we proceed to draw a picture of: a)both children with the first child hitting
the other child's face; b) the child with the resulting bloody nose, and
c) the children doing what they should have been doing on the playground
without any injury in order to compare the unacceptable behavior with the
acceptable behavior so that the child has a visual representation of what
is expected rather than just an auditory input.
Questioner:
- Do you believe that there are such things as behavior problems in children?
Dr. Arwood:
- No, not really. I don't refer to them as "behavior problems"
because I know that usually there is an underlying explanation. Behavior
can be a problem when it is not acceptable or when it is not conventional
or when it is considered abnormal or aberrant; but, unacceptable, abnormal,
aberrant or unconventional behavior results when a child does something
that is outside the realm of opportunity for doing something else. If we
change the opportunities, then we change what the child does and therefore
we limit behavior problems. These are outside the neurobiological results
of chemistry changes which some children display along with the behavior
problems.
Questioner:
- Do you believe in rewards and reinforcers as a means of controlling
behavior?
Dr. Arwood:
- The token reward system works very well for conditioning a child who
has no language, but once a child has language then language becomes the
tool that mediates the behavior with the learning. Therefore, even though
we may think that we are reinforcing a particular act into a certain kind
of behavior and even though we may think that we are punishing a child
- that child's language will determine whether or not it is being suppressed
or punished. It is a lot easier to work through the child's language/learning
system than it is to try to second guess what is being reinforced, rewarded
or punished.
The preceding excerpts were first
published in "News from Apricot", December 1988.
Questioner:
- When attending a staffing on my child, I heard references to scores
on memory tests that don't seem to reflect my child's functioning?
Dr. Arwood:
- The concept of memory has often referred to "information that
can be recalled". Types of variables that offset recall has been researched
over the past two hundred years. Most of this research has concluded that
recall is best when the material is meaningful. In other words, the more
meaningful the material, the better the recall. When a child can recall
classroom material, then the mater is meaningful or a meaningful "memorization"
process such as a mnemonic device has been use, Once the mnemonic device
has been "forgotten", the material can no longer be recalled.
Research also shows that such "memorized" material is not "lost"
but is stored in an unconnected form. When "connections" or "semantic
relationships" are created so that the material is added to other
information, the recall is permanent. Therefore, when a school tells me
that a child has a "poor memory", I immediately assume that as
educators, we, haven't made sufficient "connections" for the
child.
Questioner:
- Should children with learning/language problems be expected to perform
on reading achievement tests that emphasize phonic skills?
Dr. Arwood:
- Children with learning/language problems cannot integrate auditory
concepts (e.g., linguistic ideas and temporality) with what is visually
recognized. Therefore, these children cannot manipulate visual symbols
(letters) by acoustically rearranging, coding, decoding, etc. without also
losing the meaning of the word being "attacked." Asking these
children to perform well on a phonics test is asking them to use a neurological
process they don't have and therefore can't use. Since most parents and
educators want children to be able to use graphemes for communicating ideas
(writing) and for learning about others' ideas (reading) then all assessments
should reflect such goals. Evidence of learning would not be based on an
achievement measure but on what has been achieved. Formalized measures
that ask for recognition of written ideas without phonic skills being analyzed
will also function as assessment measures.
The preceding excerpt was first
published in "News from Apricot", June, 1989.
Questioner:
- Does the diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADD) indicate a language
problem?
Dr. Arwood:
- ADD represents a specific physiological problem and currently many
people are diagnosing ADD based upon specific behaviors such as the inability
to visually follow or track or based upon rapid eye movements in relationship
to a specific focus. If we watch our children who have language/learning
problems, we will see that many of these children have very quick movements
of the eyes because they are trying to get as much meaning as they can
from the environment. - - - - - - Perhaps we should look at the diagnosis
of ADD as an etiology, that is, there is a deficit in attention, therefore,
certain behaviors occur; but, in fact, attention is an output or representation
of the learning system. That is, we are able to attend only when something
is meaningful to us. So when we, as educators, increase the ability of
the child to organize what he/she is able to see and take in and make meaning
out of, then we also increase his/her ability to attend. - - - - - - For
example, an eighteen month old child will sit and watch cartoons for 45
minutes, attending to the color and music changes in them, but that same
child would not focus or attend to a dimly lit room, soft music, formal
place setting and quiet talk in a fancy restaurant because the information
is not meaningful. That is, it is not symbolized as: "Oh, this is
a restaurant and I am supposed to be quiet here." Similarly we may
find that many of our kids that have problems cannot attend in class, but
could sit in front of a computer for hours. - - - - - - -In summary, if
you have a child that has been given a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder,
you have a child who has been diagnosed because of noticeable behavioral
characteristics affecting the way the child learns. Perhaps we could approach
the problem from a different perspective - which is: The child shows a
number of problems with his/her learning system as evidenced by certain
behavior. Let's work with that learning system trying to make information
more meaningful, thus, making the child's learning system work more effectively
so the child functions or attends better.
The preceding excerpt was first
published in "News from Apricot", March, 1989.
To obtain reprints of past issues of "News from Apricot" please
contact Apricot by letter, e-mail or phone for information about availablilty
and cost. Information about how you may contact us is available on a sub-page
of this web site:
Click here to go to the sub-page "Contact Apricot"
Many of the teachers and clinicians who subscribed to "News from
Apricot" have expressed a desire to see the newsletter revived. One
such professional is Katherine (Kitty) Mulkey. Kitty attends workshops of
all sorts in order keep abreast of developments in techniques for special
educators; she travels several thousand miles each year to attend many of
the Apricot, Inc. workshops which are held here in Portland, Oregon. Kitty
has been particularly emphatic in encouraging Apricot to resume the newsletter.
She has agreed to work in cooperation with the staff of Apricot, Inc. to
explore a method through which the newsletter might be assembled and delivered
through "electronic publishing" over the Internet.
News of progress toward beginning the resumption of publication will
be posted to this web site as it becomes available. If you would like to
write to Kitty to encourage her or to commit yourself to sharing your ideas
and questions via the newsletter, please write to her c/o Apricot. If you
send an letter or e-mail to Kitty in care of Apricot, please begin the body
of the letter or e-mail with this phrase: "Attn: Kitty Mulkey."
Thank you.
If you would be willing to subscribe to an Internet-style newsletter,
please let us know.
Again, thank you for your interest in Apricot, Inc. |