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Topic “School”  

The school subject or topic being taught to the class or group in which the child or adult with communication difficulties finds themselves in.

Developing attention and listening skills through motivating activities

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Sensory Play

- Sensory toys and materials for messy play (e.g. trays with sand/ cornflour and water/jelly).

- The best toys are those that the child can manipulate easily to produce a result.

1. Guide your child's hands and visual attention to toys/trays of material(s) that they can touch and look at.

2. Let your child explore the toys/materials in the tray and encourage them to investigate all their properties, stimulating all of the child's senses as far as possible (colour, smell, texture).

3. You may need to draw the child's attention back to the activity if the child becomes distracted. Use your voice to regain their attention (e.g. a drawn out "ohhhh!", or an intake of breath).

Do not continue with something the child has lost interest in, but wait a while before introducing another object.
Turn taking games

- Ball / dark cloth

- Your voice - to sing simple nursery rhymes that have an element of anticipation built in such as "Round and round the haystack, like a little mouse, one step, two step and into his little house".

This is a fun activity for you and the child to enjoy together.

Use plenty of facial expression and your voice to gain and keep the child's attention.

Games and activities to help develop social skills

It can be difficult for some children to identify and understand social cues. To help develop the social growth of these children, there are lots of fun ways to help improve their social skills.

Make a choice at snack time

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Snack activity

Food items - in small pieces - which the children like, for example banana, apple, orange, crisps;

Something uninteresting - e.g. a piece of paper;

Pictures of the food items.
  1. Introduce the food items by saying and signing the word for each item;
  2. Check for which items the child is interested in having: offer some of the food items for the child to take. Re-inforce the language by saying and signing (at the same time) the food items that the child takes;
  3. (Initially) use a forced alternative (see right) to give the child a choice. E.g. "banana or orange", say and sign each option, and indicate the item as you do so. See the comments on the right for using forced alternatives;
  4. Always respond to what you think the child has communicated (see right for developing this).
  5. Wait, to give the child an opportunity to make a request spontaneously, if they don't you can continue from step 3 (offering forced alternatives).

Key strategies - you may need to come back to these as and when necessary:

Introduce each food item;

Check which ones the child is interested in;

Demonstrate the asking for and getting of an item - e.g. with another member of staff;

Wait - give time for the child to respond or initiate;

Offer a "forced alternative", e.g. "apple or orange?" - swap around the order in which you give the alternatives to check that the child is not just saying the last thing you say;

Make it difficult for the child to communicate by pointing by having the choices close together and out of reach - so if they point you actually don't know which one they pointed to;

Be sensitive to if the child is getting frustrated - think of ways to help them get it right first time - e.g. by reducing the choice down to one item (temporarily).

Using forced alternatives:

Always give the child the thing they said/signed for. If they are having difficulties with this - for example always say the last thing in the alternative, try the following:

Have one of the forced alternatives being something uninteresting (e.g. the piece of paper);

Have the last alternative as something the child doesn't want (if the child always says the last thing);

Give more emphasis to the desired item, e.g. "Banana or paper?", you could also try only signing the desired item. Over time, reduce the difference in emphasis.

Improving clarity

Sometimes the child may say/sign what they want, but you don't feel it is clear enough (perhaps you can understand it in this context but might not be able to in another situation). To try and improve this, you can try:

Saying 'pardon?' or something equivalent;

Look confused and say, for example '(Do you mean) apple or banana?' (saying and signing these) - this will often encourage the child to produce a clearer version;

Simply re-inforce with the clear version, e.g. you say "Oh, banana" (saying and signing it then passing it over);

Try to avoid simply asking the child to repeat after you as there is no communication and it's not a natural way to communicate - by asking the child to repeat you have shown them that you have understood, and so this is now a different repetition activity - it also has the danger that it could reduce the accuracy of what the child originally said or signed as they didn't get a direct result from this.

 

Activities to develop understanding of a negative and a noun, e.g. "no hat"

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Dressing up

- Some everyday clothes eg hat, gloves, scarf, sun glasses

- Large soft toy

- Digital camera or phone with a camera.
  1. Take turns to put on the clothing items one at a time and take a picture. Take a picture with the clothing item removed. You can print the pictures out if you wish.
  2. Comment ‘Look ...... ‘Child’s name) with a hat, and (child’s name) with no hat’.
  3. Ask the child to look at the two pictures and say ‘Show me (child’s name) with a hat’ and show me (child’s name) with no hat.’
  4. Do the same using the large soft toy.

-

Request a desired item

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Snack time
  • Choice of food items in small pieces - e.g. pieces of banana, orange or crisps - which the person is interested in having;
  • Something not interesting to the person - e.g. a piece of paper;
  • Pictures of each item (e.g. a picture of a banana, a crisp and a piece of paper).
  1. Offer a choice of food items, or a choice of a food item and the "boring" item (if the person doesn't mind which food item they get);
  2. Ask them what they want giving a choice, e.g. "Would you like some banana or a crisp?" (Stress the underlined words and also sign them);
  3. Respond to what you understand the person has communicated - giving them that item.

See the comments on the right as to how to respond to some typical situations.

What to do in common scenarios

The person points at or tries to take the item.

Hold or place the items in such a way that they can't easily take them and so that even if they point it is not clear which one they are choosing (once you know - and the person knows you know - which one they want simply now asking them to repeat what you had hoped they would have requested is much less powerful for learning).

The person always asks for the last thing you said (e.g. always asking for a crisp):

Try reversing the order of the choice you give them;

If they don't seem to care which one you give them, give them a choice of a desirable item and a boring item - saying the boring item last - then respond to their request for the boring item. To stop frustration, you might need to quickly follow this up with another go where you only offer them one item (the desirable item);

Encourage them to point to a picture to show you which one they want - then reinforce this by signing and saying the word.

General strategies

Model the asking and requesting with someone (e.g. other staff) to show what you are hoping people to do.

Key Word Signing

Key word signing is used with people with communication and/or learning difficulties. Key word signing is always done whilst speaking, and you use it to sign the most important words that you are saying at an appropriate level for the person you are signing with.

Aware of changes in daily routine

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Usual timetable

Picture symbols which represent each activity in the day (and/or use words if the child understands these) with velcro on the back;

Velcro board to stick them to;

A normal day!

You can find picture symbols with the Commtap Symboliser.
  1. At a point earlier in the day (preferably at the beginning), go through the activities you will be doing. Put a card down for each activity in order;
  2. As you come to each activity in the day, refer the child to the corresponding picture in the timetable;
  3. Later in the day - preferably at the end - go through the timetable again;
  4. Once the child is familiar with this, see how much of the timetable they can construct at the beginning and end of the day. Check they are able to show which activity they are currently doing on the timetable.

This activity is about ensuring that the child understands their usual timetable.

Do this activity on a 'normal' day (or at least one that is likely to be normal).

The child should be able to understand the pictures or words you use for the timetable. If not, you should spend some time showing the child the picture symbol word when they are doing the activities in the routine. See also: "Use a visual timetable" on the Commtap site.

If a whole day is too much, you could do this over a part of the day - for example the morning or the afternoon.
Timetable - day which is different

Picture symbols which represent each activity in the day (and/or use words if the child understands these) with velcro on the back;

Velcro board to stick them to;

A day which is different.

You can find picture symbols with the Commtap Symboliser.

Ideally, the child should already be able to construct the timetable for the 'normal' day with minimal prompting.

Requests help or other actions

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Sabotage! - supported with a picture symbol

A ‘HELP’ picture symbol 

Container the child can see into but can't open e.g. screw-top jar/zip-top bag etc which contains a motivating reward e.g. crisp, raisin, sticker.

You can get symbols with the Commtap Symboliser.

 
  1. Put the ‘Help’ symbol in front of the child.
  2. Put the motivating reward into the container.
  3. Shake the container and get the child’s interest.
  4. Give the container to the child, so they can try to get the item out of the container.
  5. Make sure the child can give you the container for you to open it for them. At first you may need to take the container from them, open the it, and give it back to them for a few goes.
  6. When the child can do this, when they are going to give you the container, redirect the child to the ‘Help’ symbol and hold out your hand to receive the ‘Help’ symbol. Say ‘Help …… I want help.’
  7. Wait for the child to say ‘Help’ or hand you the ‘Help’ symbol.
  8. If this does not happen help the child to hand over the ‘Help’ symbol. Say ‘Help’ as the child gives you the symbol.

When the child has successfully indicated they want help, give them that help - otherwise the child will become extremely frustrated.
Sabotage! - supported with a sign

Container the child can see into but can't open e.g. screw-top jar/zip-top bag etc which contains a motivating reward e.g. crisp, raisin, sticker.

Make sure you know the sign for help before doing the activity (e.g. Signalong, Makaton).

When the child has successfully indicated they want help, give them that help - otherwise the child will become extremely frustrated.

Over time you will want to encourage the child to use a clearer indication that they want help. You can do this by:

  • waiting - leave time for the child to make some kind of an indication;
  • appear confused and model the sign and say the word ("Help?"), to see if they can try to be a little more accurate;
  • be sensitive about how long you can wait, and how precise their request is before opening the container for them.
Impossible task!

Materials as needed, for example:

  • Pictures for cutting out e.g. old Argos catalogue
  • Scissors
  • Simple board game
  • Blunt pencil
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Paper
  • Equipment for an activity the child enjoys
  • Bubbles

See also: https://en.commtap.org/language-communication/initiate-request-items-do-task

Note, for most of these examples the child could potentially ask you for a specific item, or ask you for help - both are valid!

You can easily integrate this into many classroom activities without the need for any extra equipment.

Indicates wanting more of an activity

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Bubbles/balloon

Blow some bubbles to get the child's attention / Blow a balloon up and then let the air out to make a noise.

Get ready to do the activity again, but wait for the child to indicate that they want some more.

Use a phrase to encourage anticipation (for example "ready, steady......go!")

Initially encourage eye contact to communicate wanting more. You can do this by holding the bubbles up near your face.

As the child becomes more consistent in using eye contact encourage them to use the "more" sign by modelling this for them.

The activity must be motivating for the child for this to work: do not labour the activity if the child is not interested in it.
Building a tower

Bricks or stacking beakers.

Work in a quiet distraction free place.

Make this activity fun and snappy!

The activity must be motivating for the child for this to work: do not labour the activity if the child is not interested in it.
Making sand pies with a twist

Small bucket

Sand in a sand pit

Spade

Small animal to hide at the bottom of the bucket.

Have fun!

The activity must be motivating for the child for this to work: do not labour the activity if the child is not interested in it.
Filling transparent container with bottle tops (or other items)

Several containers

Large amount of bottle tops (or other similar material)

Have fun!

Rattle the bag with the bottle tops, and give a lot of encouragement and praise. Make sure the child knows they are going to be rewarded with the desired object if they indicate more.

Reach to indicate wanting more of an activity

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Water play
  • water tray or washing up bowl;
  • containers of various sizes;
  • sponges;
  • apron(s).

1. Try actions that the child might enjoy, for example squeezing out the sponge, pouring water over their hands, flicking a little bit of water towards the child;

2. Stop and wait;

3. Look for any sign that the child might want the action repeated, this could be looking, smiling, a slight movement. For some children the only indication they might make is not moving their hands away;

4. Repeat the activity.

The purpose of this activity is to encourage children to use a developmentally early method of showing that they want some or more of an activity. This activity may be too low level for the child if they are beginning to make some other indication that they want some or more of an activity, for example using a gesture or sign, using some kind of vocalisation.

Keep each go short so that the child has plenty of opportunities to indicate that they want the activity repeated.

Do not continue the activity if there is any indication that the child does not want to do the activity.

A helper sitting behind the child to assist them in making the reaching response can make this activity easier.
Personal battery operated fans

Hand held battery operated fan.

Comments - see above.
Textures/messy play

One or materials with different textures, for example:

Comments - see above.
Noise makers

Musical instruments, for example:

  • percussion instruments,
  • battery operated musical toys.

Comments - see above.
Cause and effect toys

Any toys which have a quick response, e.g. a jack in a box.

For comments - see above.

Developing the skill of looking at and responding to another person

Activity/strategy name and materials required How to do the activity Key principles for doing the activity and comments
Peek-a-boo

- A piece of material - this could be a blanket, a muslin, a cloth, a scarf.
  1. Sit down with your child.
  2. Call your child's name to encourage them to look at you.
  3. Hold up the cloth between yourself and your child so that you cannot see each other's faces. Make a noise to help your child anticipate what will happen, e.g. "ooooo".
  4. Pull the cloth down and say "boo" maintaining eye contact with your child.
  5. Wait for a response, e.g. your child smiling and then say "more" and repeat the activity.

Sit on the carpet or at a table dependent on where is most comfortable for your child.

Your child may not respond to their name so you may need to make an interesting sound to get their attention.

 

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