Welcome to Functional Curriculum: Week 8. Communication Skills Across Classes & Subjects...

Upcoming Due Dates

Today- Instructional Plan for Functional Skills Due

May 25th- Instructional Plan for Communication Skills

June 1st- Instructional Plan for Academic Skills

June 8th- Implementation Plan (for one of the above)

Welcome to Functional Curriculum: Week 8

Communication Skills Across Classes & Subjects

Greetings & Farewells Age-appropriate vocabulary, mannerisms May not necessarily need a Speech Generated

Device (SGD)

Asking for Attention/HelpComments of Approval & RejectionSocial Closeness

Observe what typical students do to achieve this E.g., admiring another’s hairstyle, telling secrets

Communicative Skills specific to a class or an activity

Middle School Activities

Unstructured, highly social time now found during nutrition breaks, hall transitions, changing for PE, extracurricular activities

The way teachers conduct their classes will determine the extent, amount, & type of communication interactions possible

Think of ways to facilitate opportunities for students to work on communication

Students with limited communication skills need to be taught a broad array of communicative

functions…more than just requests

Rejecting or protesting.. ”No”Anticipate possible rejectionsWatch for the behaviors that lead to

unconventional rejectionsProvide students with appropriate ways of

expressing “No” May be shaking head, pushing items away, using

signs, device, etc.

Gaining attention3 steps:

Selecting a listener Increasing proximity to listener Obtaining listener’s attention (e.g., Saying others

name, establishing eye contact)

Actively teach students alternative and more appropriate behavior for obtaining attention.

How might you teach a student to gain someone’s attention in a socially acceptable manner? Think of setting up a situation and strategies already taught in this course (e.g. prompting levels, time-delay, etc.)

Gaining attention example

Difficult to teach gaining attention when attention has already been gained.

Get a third party involvedEx: Student needs paperYou tell him that you do not have paperHe must ask another teacher/person (may need

to prompt after 5 seconds)Other person “ignores” student until uses

appropriate behavior to gain attentionYou model getting that person’s attention If student does not follow model (prompt)Person does not help student until appropriate

behavior used.

Greetings, farewells, social niceties

How would you teach? Shape behaviors by modelingDirect students attention to others

engaged in similar behaviorsMake sure AAC devices are readily

availableLeast-to-most prompting strategy may

NOT be most effective because greetings & farewells occur quickly

Physically shape response quickly & directly

CommentingHow would you teach this?Need creative ways of expressing

thoughts & opinions Picture system that allow her to say, “I like that,” Or

“I think it needs more stuff”, etc.

ModelTime delayPhysical promptRecommend a commentAsk student to confirm or deny (Yes or No)

Social Closeness: Tease, joke, etc.

How would you teach this? Encourage students to bring items of

interest from homeProgram an option on device to say, “See

what I’ve Got”Jointly exploring an item with partnerConversational partner trained to make

comments, questionsTarget student prompted to continue

conversation

Asking for Information

How would you teach this?Prompt to raise handUse device to generic ask questions

“Where did you say you got that?; Can I get a closer look?”, etc.

Confirming or denying

How would you teach this?Conversation partners need to remember

to give students this opportunity.Indicate whether they were understood

correctly by saying “Yes or No”, noddding, etc.

Teaching students conversational skills

How would you teach this? Example?Emphasize initiation…not common for

students with disabilities Have another person be the partner as you teach

initiation. Ensure student has a reason to initiate

interaction..wants something, etc. Has some means with which to initiate an

interaction Has easy access to potential communication

partners Model, prompt, fade

Maintaining Interaction

How would you teach this? Example?Falls on shoulders of communication

partnerProvide communicative aides beyond

Yes/No…conversation books, boards, boxes of items.

Things that can be used to direct partner’s attention…conversation piece

Teach taking turns

Terminating the ConversationHow would you teach how to do this

appropriately? Teach conversational partners to prompt

termination behaviors…e.g., “see ya, gotta go”

Students would need a device or means to make these statements

Teach to respond to farewells Again least-to-most may not be the best

prompting here…use most to least

Teaching students to generalize communication skills

How would you do this?

In-Class Activity On back of your entry activity you have a

case studyWork with a partner to identify ways

student can or could communicate during these activities.

More Rx on Intervention

Use of Communication Dictionary for students with very unique communication needs (Mirenda, 2005)

Requesting is the most frequently used and easily learned by students with severed disabilities (Carter, 2003; Snell et al., 2006)

Teasing, joking, age-appropriate behavior is difficult to teach without symbolic communication, use of conversation books (Hunt et al., 1997)

Eliciting Communicative Behavior

• Facilitate communication & teach partners to:– Increase proximity to student– Position self at eye level – Look expectantly to encourage

participation– Accept student’s current modes of

communication– Wait for student to initiate/respond– Less directive– Ensure student has way to express

self

Communicating should be motivating to students• Home environment, past

experiences, cultural values, learning styles, & perceived importance of communicating influence the learning process

• Communication intervention should not be stressful, but where student sees benefit..meaningful in natural environments

Creating the Need to Practice Skills

• Could refrain from giving student materials that they need for an activity until they request them.

• Include giving too little of something so the student must ask for more

• Giving different item than what was requested, so student must correct

• Giving most of items but leaving out an item in order to prompt the student to request missing item

Motivating the student to communicate

• Team must be careful that student is empowered to control as many aspects of day and recognize their control.

• Accepting approximations• Pay attention to their facial &

gestural responses and make comments. – “Don’t worry that was just

Stephanie’s book”---when student startled by sound of banging

Offering choices to motivate students

• Encourage choice-making• Based on preference

assessment• Choices should be easy so

student does not need to deliberate too long

• If student does not make a choice, find more interesting items.

Enhancing social environment

• Limit lecture and independent seat work

• Use cooperative learning, small groups, & partner learning

Make communicating fun• Students need to see

immediate pay off for communication

• Engage in interesting & unusual acts to facilitate engaging in joint attention with their partner (Jones & Carr, 2004)– E.g., try to put adult shoe or coat

on student at the end of the day• Don’t make communication

seem like work. Continuous pointing can get boring....think of other things to do!

Considerations prior to direct intervention

• Physical ability of student—positioning, vision, hearing

• Modeling behavior- provide a lot of exposure to desired communication models---have peers use device to model.

• Prompting- consider level needed & plan for fading

• Reinforce desired behavior- know what student likes…function of their behavior…remember functional communication training?

Introducing New Symbols

• Pair new symbol with the actual item, person, or activity

• When student attempts to communicate using a previous method (e.g., reaching for an object), the new symbol should be placed so that it is front of or next to the object.

• Considerations for adding new symbols: visual abilities, auditory skills, memory, cognitive skills

More Rx on Intervention

Pivotal Response Training (Koegel et al., 1998) used for teaching requesting information/ asking questions.

Teaching students ways to deal with “communication breakdowns” is a critical communication goal (Cress, 2002) Teach students to repeat initial efforts, or

respond to yes/no suggestions by partners..”Did you mean..?”

Train conversational partners to follow the lead of student, respond immediately, and expand on responses (Dennis, 2002; Kaiser & Grim, 2006)