TEACHING ADULTS TO BECOME EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION PARTNERS When considering how a student with limited verbal skills will learn language, attention also needs to be given to what they are doing AND how communication partners respond to them. Adults play a monumental role in fostering student communica- tion; there are a number of important concepts they must learn and do. To avoid pitfalls of passivity and prompt dependency, communication partners need to be ready to encourage and respond from the moment students engage with them. Training adults to be effective communication partners is just as important as teaching the students. RECOGNIZE STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATION ATTEMPTS Due to their visual and physical issues, students’ communication attempts may be overlooked or misinterpreted by others. To provide awareness, team members can complete an inventory of the student’s communication attempts, such as the “How I Communicate” Chart in Table 3. Team members should write down exactly what the student does (form/context) as well as what it means (function of the message). Team members can also add how the adults should respond and what the adults should say. This can help everyone respond to the student in a more consistent way. The table below is an example using the form, “How I Communicate: All Day Every Day OPPORTUNITY,” adapted from Bridge School forms and www.praacticalaac.org (September, 2013). The items below illustrate how Sidney communicates; Sidney has cerebral palsy (spastic quadriplegia) and CVI from from a brain injury in utero. Examples include communications using her com- munication device (an Accent 1000, that she operates with 2 switch step-scanning) and using vocalizations. Although her verbal abilities are limited to mostly open vowels and a few consonants (b, d, m), she has learned over time to differentiate the sounds she makes to approximate other sibilants.
Table 3. Recognizing Student Communication Attempts
What I Do FORM (CONTEXT)
What It Means FUNCTION MESSAGE Signals that she is ready to say something
What YOU should do (PARTNERS)
What you should SAY and MODEL (PARTNERS) Acknowledge the intent of the message before suggesting ed- its. (For example, you said “want cookie” and if you want one, you could say, “I want a cookie, please”) If she appears frustrated, re- assure that you have time to wait for her, or tell her when you will have more time Start by acknowledging what she said. When there is time and few distractions, encourage her to ask questions about the schedule using her device. Acknowledge what you see. “I see you have your eyes closed and your head down. That really lets me know that you want a break.
Initiates conversation by verbally saying “hi”
Let her know when you are ready to listen to her. Give her time to select more than one word while waiting quietly. Notice if she needs to move to a quieter area to talk
Subvocalizes “yeah
Self-talk while listening to audi- tory prompts from her device
Wait quietly
Says, “day”
She has a question about the schedule
Check facial expression for frustration or curiosity before deciding how to respond. Talk to her about changes to her schedule. Back off on any requests. Give visual break.
Closes eyes and hangs head down
Finished Stop Visually overloaded
ATTRIBUTE MEANING TO COMMUNICATION ATTEMPTS When filling in the second column of the “How I Communicate” Table (Function of Message), there may be some expressive behaviors that students demonstrate which are unclear. In these instances, it may be helpful to “attribute meaning” to inconsis- tent, perhaps unclear or unrelated attempts. Attributing meaning is very simply verbally assigning meaning to something that the partner sees the student doing. Attributing meaning is something adults naturally do with young children who are learning new skills and aren’t quite sure about what they are doing. Adults do this in a way that presumes intent and competence, even though the adults may not be sure about what the student really means. This same strategy can be used with students with CVI who may be random, inconsistent and unclear in their intent. Carefully watch the student for ANY type of response, e.g. arm/ leg movement, a smile, change of facial expression, head turn, vocalization. Respond by telling the student exactly what you see them doing and then give their observable behavior a possible meaning that might be connected to the activity, and then move
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