The International Association Method Task Force

The Association Method

Background

The Association Method is a phonetic, multisensory teaching-learning strategy designed for language-deficient children. It was devised originally by the late Mildred McGinnis, a teacher at Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis.

Special Features

• Multisensory teaching that includes the use of auditory, visual, tactile, and motor-kinesthetic cues for learning
• Use of the Northampton Symbol system for teaching sound-symbol relationships for reading
• Use of cursive writing for initial instruction. Children learn to read manuscript, but write only in cursive.
• A slower rate of speech is used to give the children more time to understand what is being said and more time to observe the speaker's lip movements
• Precise articulation is required from the beginning
• Color differentiation
• An individual child's book is made as he/she progresses through the Method
• The Method is implemented in a manner that is incremental and systematic. Instruction progresses from the teaching of individual sounds to syllables, words of gradually increasing length, basic sentences and questions, more advanced sentence structures, and the corresponding questions. Ultimately, when sufficient language skills have been achieved, a transition is made to traditional textbook formats for instruction.
• Instruction in phonetic rules is delayed until the upper levels of the Association Method.

Additional Information

If you are interested in additional information concerning the Association Method, please click the contact us link. We look forward to hearing from you.

Additional information is also available at the following Web site link:
http://www.usm.edu/dubard/associat.html