Miller Method

Treatment Overview

Arnold Miller, Ph.D., Director of the Language and Cognitive Development Center of Boston and Affiliate Professor of Psychology, Clark University, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Clark University. He has held research appointments at Boston University and Harvard Medical School, served on the faculty of the University of Montana and directed the Language Development Laboratory at Wrentham State School in Massachusetts.

Eileen Eller-Miller, M.A., CCC, Sp/L, Education Director of the Language and Cognitive Development Center, received her M.A. in speech and language pathology from Columbia University and a B.A. in psychology from the City University of New York. She has held positions at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital, Beth Abraham and Hunter College in New York City

Together, the Millers founded the Language and Cognitive Development Center (LCDC) in Boston in 1965. From then to the present - with the help of research and demonstration grants from the U.S. Department of Education - the Millers have introduced a range of innovative strategies for helping developmentally challenged children achieve their fullest potential. These strategies, now known as the Miller Method®, are described below.

The Miller Method addresses children's body organization, social interaction, communication, and representation issues in both clinical and classroom settings. Cognitive-developmental systems theory assumes that typical development depends on the ability of the children to form systems (organized "chunks" of behaviour) that are initially repetitive and circular but which become expanded and complicated as the children develop. Becoming aware of the distinction between themselves and their immediate surroundings, children's systems, previously triggered only by salient properties of the environment, gradually come under their control. Children then combine their systems in new ways that permit problem solving, social exchanges and communication with themselves and others about the world.

The Miller Method uses two major strategies to restore typical developmental progressions: one involves the transformation of children's aberrant systems (lining up blocks, hand flapping, spinning wheels, etc.) into functional behaviours; the other is the systematic and repetitive introduction of developmentally relevant activities involving objects and people. Activities are chosen to fill developmental gaps.

In comparison, Greenspan's Floortime approach directs the therapist to wait for the child's lead before attempting to build on it with "circles of communication." While also making use of the child's leads, the Miller Method introduces a specific program to directly address developmental lags. For example, if a child has never gone through the 9-11 month old stage of "experimentally" dropping things to learn how they fall, a Miller Method therapist may deliberately introduce a dropping system by showing the child how to drop things so that they land with a satisfying "clunk" in a pan and then shift that pan so that the child learns to drop in different locations and with different people. The Miller Method also structures the children's behaviour with the help of elevated structures, such as the Elevated Square in a way that helps "scattered" children focus more effectively.

Parents play an integral role in the program by generalizing the children's achievements at the centre to the home and elsewhere.

The Umwelt Assessment is the initial assessment and examines the unique way in which each child experiences reality. The staff observes the manner in which the child reacts or fails to react to different parts of a situation.

The Miller Method attempts to expand and transform limited reality systems and enrich the child's repertoire by introducing new skills through new activities. When, through their work at the centre, the children learn to tolerate "stretching" their reality systems, their ability to cope with different life situations improves dramatically.