Language Acquisition
Through Motor
Planning
Presented by Verity-Jane Hart
Senior Regional Consultant Liberator
Presented by Emily Williams
SLT and Danielle Aubrey SLTA
Moorcroft School
What is LAMP?
• Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) is
a therapeutic approach based on neurological and motor
learning principles.
• LAMP focuses on giving the individual independent
access to vocabulary on voice output AAC devices that
use consistent motor plans for accessing vocabulary.
• The goal is to give individuals who are nonverbal or have
limited verbal abilities a method of independently and
spontaneously expressing themselves in any setting.
Five Key Elements
Natural
Consequences
Readiness To
Learn
LANGUAGE
CONNECTIONS
Auditory
Signals
Joint
Engagement
Consistent &
Unique Motor
Patterns
Readiness to learn: The individual is in a state to receive optimal benefit from the
learning experience. Their arousal level in conducive for participation and learning
from an activity.
Joint Engagement: The individual will follow or direct the attention of another person
to an event or object in order to share interest in the event or object.
Consistent and Unique Motor Patterns: The individual learns individual motor patterns
for each word, similar to how those who are verbal have an individual motor pattern
made with their mouth for each word spoken, allowing the non-verbal individual to
develop automaticity.
Auditory Signals: When the individual has accessed the device and carried out a motor
pattern for a word, they will get auditory feedback of that word.
Natural Consequences: The individual should have a natural consequence to the
attempt to communicate. This should be visual, social and auditory. Meaning is
attached to words by what occurs when they are used.
How did LAMP begin @ Moorcroft?
Liberator sponsored the Center for AAC and
Autism’s UK visits.
Lindsey Cargill, an SLP @ Helping Hands
Center
Contacted Moorcroft School
Emily chose some students to participate in LAMP
trials
How did it begin @ Moorcroft?
• Emily attended a general information day on LAMP in March 2011.
Introduced to the basic premise of LAMP and basic introduction to using a
Vantage Lite.
• Fed back to Danielle and started trialling the approach with a student
using a Dynavox! Tricky but progress was made!
•Heard about the trials and felt compelled to take part to both learn more
about LAMP and offer our students the opportunity to be assessed by the
experts
• Moorcroft has a number of students who met with the criteria for LAMP.
Characteristically non-verbal, ASD, challenging behaviour and limited
response to prior interventions such as PECS.
• “Brick wall”
•Chose 3 Students
1 – Non verbal, limited/no communication system, earlier work with
modified Dynavox
2 – Non verbal, ASD, some mild challenging behaviour, 2 – 3 symbols
used inconsistently, some interaction with others when utilising Intensive
Interaction
3 – Non verbal, ASD, extreme challenging behaviour, 5 symbols, trigger
words, violence to self and others, little no interaction with others.
Case Study – A
• Student number 3
• “Wildcard”
• Extract from Biography given to Lindsey :A is 15 years old. She has a diagnosis of ASD. She is pre-verbal. A currently
has a PECS book but she does not use it consistently. Everyone who works
with A feels she understands exactly what is required of her in many
situations but chooses not to comply. A responds really well to Intensive
interaction / TACPAC activities through which she builds trust with others.
She will sign ‘more’ and ‘please’.
She struggles with adult-directed activities getting extremely angry and
needs firm boundaries to comply.
She demonstrates extremely challenging behaviour including:Self-harm (including hitting, pulling hair out)
Aggression to others (including hitting, biting, kicking, pinching)
She appears to demonstrate some sensory seeking behaviours. She will eat
most things including non-food items.
She does not like certain loud sounds or high pitched noises. A loves tickles
games, deep pressure, playing with dried chickpeas, shredding things,
bouncing balls (although she may eat them) and cause/effect games on the
plasma screen.
A has certain trigger words which result in violent behaviour.
E’s journey
July 2011 – Initial assessment session with Lindsey
July 2011 – First sessions with us
October 2011 – ‘Top up’ session with Cindy
November 2011 – Loan from ACE centre
February / March 2012 – Further loan
Five Key Elements
Natural
Consequences
Readiness To
Learn
LANGUAGE
CONNECTIONS
Auditory
Signals
Joint
Engagement
Consistent &
Unique Motor
Patterns
Outcomes (so far!)
- A is now spontaneously using some 3 word sentences
- She’s using word combinations we haven’t modelled
- She is using words for multiple meetings
- She is recalling vocabulary from previous sessions with no modelling
needed
- She’s expressing likes and dislikes
- She’s tolerating changes in activity
- She’s tolerating use of trigger words
- Challenging behaviour is almost non-existent in our sessions
- A will complete adult introduced tasks
- She’s participating in shared interactions with us
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY………
What have we learned about A?
- She is extremely intelligent
- She has a sense of humour
- She has good taste in music!
- She enjoys other people’s company
- She isn’t frightening!
Since the trials @ CAA and Liberator
~ CAA UK
Now a UK based Center for AAC and Autism
~ Accredited Trainers
~ LAMP Workshops
See Liberator website for more details
~ Continued collaborative work with Emily and Verity with other
LAMP students
~ Continued support with funding
http://www.aacandautism.com
http://www.aacandautism.com
http://www.aaclanguagelab.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Center-for-AACAutism/143292697749