Topic “College”

Share information about self with others

Activity/strategy name and materials required	How to do the activity	Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Likes and dislikes Optional - something to record the students responses on (e.g. paper/pen) which can later be used as a prompt; Soft ball or beanbag.	Go round each student, asking them what their favourite food is - write it down and/or do a very rough sketch of it as you go; One student has a ball, they choose another student and say the other student's name and what their favourite food is - for example "Tom - you like burgers". They then pass the ball to that student. Use the prompt card if necessary.	To make it harder, you can go around again asking for favourite drinks - so that everyone now has to remember a food and a drink for each student when they pass the ball (e.g "Tim - you like carrot cake and tea"). You could use favourite games, favourite places to go, etc. instead.

Activity/strategy name and materials required	How to do the activity	Key principles for doing the activity and comments
What have you done today? Optional - way of recording students responses - e.g. paper/pen, whiteboard/marker	Go round each student in turn asking what they have done today - e.g. "what did you do this morning": ideally one or two things each. Write and/or sketch something (very roughly!!) under each student's name on the sheet of paper (you can use this as a prompt later). After all students have said something, pretend to have "forotten" what they'd said - ask individual students to remind you, for example "Karen, what did Abdul do?" - use the prompt sheet if necessary.	Variations After a student has said what they did, get them to ask their neighbour what they did. Get the students to ask each other in pairs and then tell the whole group what their partner did. Ask students to say what they did at the weekend or what they did in the holidays.
What have you done today - with a ball Optional - way of recording students responses - e.g. paper/pen, whiteboard/marker Soft ball or beanbag	Login or register to see the instructions for this activity.

Activity/strategy name and materials required	How to do the activity	Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Gain visual attention Use something that the person may be visually attracted by, for example: Flashing light; Any favoured object; Hair band with a visually interesting item e.g. Christmas bands.	Work in an environment that has as little visual distraction as possible. Talk to the person and attract their attention by moving around the flashing light or other object. Once the person is looking at the item establish visual tracking (move it around a little so that they can follow it with their eyes). When visual tracking is established bring the item up towards your eyes so that the person is looking towards your eyes. If the person makes eye contact then give lots of verbal encouragement by saying "hello" smiling etc.	Remember that although the room needs to have little visual distraction the light needs to be sufficient to allow clear eye contact to be made e.g. a low light sensory room may not be so good for this activity.

Thank you for visiting Commtap.

Please read this message as it is extremely important.

Visitor donations mean we can continue to host over 1,000 free activities to support speech, language, and communication development.
Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide free resources to address a wide range of communication needs, including limited speech or language, interaction challenges, and needs associated with conditions such as developmental language disorder, autism, and cerebral palsy.
Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide resources to support the work of speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, parents, and carers.
Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide the free key word sign dictionary (bks.org.uk) which has over 2,000 Makaton and Signalong signs.

We know that not everyone is able to afford to pay to access these resources, however, if you can, please make a donation to keep the site going.

Thank you