Collection Item #1: Using Visual Schedules
In over three decades of clinical work with beginning communicators, one lesson that I have learned over and over is this: The more our clients understand about the expectations, the better they are ...
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Collection Behavioral Supports for the Beginning Communicator
Date Created: 4/25/2016
Posts: 2
The topic that I selected for this week, Behavioral Supports for the Beginning Communicator, was selected for its broad applicability across roles and disciplines. Families, SLPs, educators, OTs, AT specialists and others often puzzle over how to create good learning situations for our beginning communicators. In this collection, I hope to share information and resources that support engagement, foster understanding, and lead to more effective instruction. I welcome your input, experiences, and suggestions.
Many thanks to Dr. Rowland for the kind invitation to be the inaugural guest host for the new Communication Matrix website and community Collections. My name is Carole Zangari, and I am a Speech Language Pathology faculty member in the College of Health Care Sciences at Nova Southeastern University. I teach AAC courses to our master's and doctoral students, provide clinical supervision to graduate student clinicians serving AAC clients, and run the Augmentative Communication Education Lab. In addition, I serve as the Executive Director for our university's satellite of the state-funded Centers for Autism and Related Disabilities program (CARD), which currently supports over 3,800 families affected by autism. Over the years, I have been involved in several AAC organizations, such as ASHA's AAC Special Interest Group, the US AAC Society, and the International AAC Society, and have met some of you through those activities. In addition to my love for AAC, I am also fascinated by the potential of digital technologies to connect, engage, and learn. I have been teaching online for over a decade, and have been using social media for the past 4-5 years. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram (@PrAACticalAAC), on Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/aacandat/) and in some of the Facebook pages that I manage (e.g., www.facebook.com/PrAACticalAAC/). I have been sharing about the uses of these technologies and others at professional conferences, and am incredibly excited about the ways in which they can help us work better and more efficiently. Chris Bugaj and I will be delving into this topic at the ISAAC preconference session, AAC Practitioners in the 21st Century: Leveraging Our Efforts through Social Media and Digital Technologies (http://bit.ly/ISAACpreconf). Some of you may also know me as the owner/author of the educational blog, PrAACtical AAC. Many of my curated items and posts for this week will refer to information and/or resources associated with that site. I receive no revenue or compensation through those activities.
There are very few strategies that I use with almost every AAC client that I serve. This is one of them."
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We often underestimate beginning communicators, and that leads us to shy away from certain intervention strategies. Maybe it is time to give some of them a second look."
Collection Item # 2: Video Modeling and Self-modeling
Another evidence-based strategy for helping our clients understand the expected behaviors is video modeling. We all know how powerful it is to see examples of clinicians and educators in action. Knowi...
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Statement A
My child doesn't seem to have real control over his body yet.
The only way I know that he wants something is because he fusses or whines when he's unhappy or uncomfortable, and he smiles, makes noises or calms down when he's happy and comfortable. Does this statement describe your child?
Statement B
My child has control over her own behaviors, but she doesn't use them to try to communicate to me.
She doesn't come to me to let me know what she wants, but it's easy for me to figure out, because she tries to do things for herself. She knows what she wants, and her behavior shows me what she wants. If she runs out of something to eat, she will just try to get more, rather than trying to get me to give her more.
Does this statement describe your child?
Statement C
My child clearly tries to communicate his needs to me through gestures, sounds or language.
He knows how to get me to do something for him. He uses some of the kinds of behaviors below to communicate:
- Gestures such as pointing, shaking his head, tugging at my arm or looking back and forth between me and what he wants
- Sounds such as squealing to show you he wants something or fussing when he doesn't want something
- Language or symbolic forms of communication such as speech, written words, Braille, picture symbols, 3-dimensional symbols or sign language
Does this statement describe your child?
How to score your child
Each question you will see is related to a certain message that your child might be able to express using a variety of behaviors. Read the question and decide whether your child is able to express the message described using any of the listed behaviors. If the answer is YES, then you must also decide whether your child has mastered the use of each behavior or whether it is still at an emerging stage. Check either the mastered or emerging box next to any behaviors your child uses to express the message. Use the following definitions to decide whether a behavior is mastered or emerging
Mastered
– Does this independently most of the time when the opportunity arises
– Does this in a number of di erent contexts, and with di erent people
Emerging
– Does this inconsistently
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Only does this when prompted or encouraged to do so. Only does this in one or two contexts or with one person.
Tips on Communication Devices
Each question you will see is related to a certain message that your child might be able to express using a variety of behaviors. Read the question and decide whether your child is able to express the message described using any of the listed behaviors. If the answer is YES, then you must also decide whether your child has mastered the use of each behavior or whether it is still at an emerging stage. Check either the mastered or emerging box next to any behaviors your child uses to express the message. Use the following definitions to decide whether a behavior is mastered or emerging
