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Topic “Individual”
Contains activities for individuals (one on one).
Encouraging eye gaze communication (no tech)
various contributors
Created 16 November 2016; updated 6 December 2024.
Encouraging eye gaze communication (no tech)
Helping a child to use/begin to use an eye gazing to communicate choices or an action they would like you to do - with pictures and (optionally) a perspex eye gaze frame (i.e. sheet of clear plastic you hold up between you and the child to fix communication pictures on).
Encouraging looking at an appropriate picture
In this situation you know what the child wants - e.g. they want the mirror chimes, or they want you to spin them, but they are not looking at the appropriate picture or picture symbol. This can happen if the child is new to this communication method, or you've put pictures in a different position on the frame in front of the child, or you are presenting new picture symbols.
Try
Multi-syllable (polysyllable) word lists
Lists of words containing more than two syllables.
Three syllable words
alarm clock
alphabet
ambulance
banana
bicycle
butterfly
cereal
chimpanzee
chocolate
computer
dinosaur
elephant
fingernail
fire engine
gorilla
hair dryer
hospital
jellyfish
lasagne
library
magazine
microwave
museum
newspaper
octopus
orange juice
parachute
pelican
polar bear
ponytail
potato
radio
raspberry
skeleton
spaghetti
strawberry
submarine
sunglasses
swimming pool
Activities for comprehension of concepts
Created 19 November 2015; updated 25 November 2015.
Running a craft group to develop friendships and communication
Neil Thompson
This provides suggestions for developing friendships and communication skills through running a craft group: particularly suitable for adults with a range of learning disabilities.
Created 21 July 2015.
Prompts for a simple conversation
gemma47
These cards contain prompts to guide someone through a simple three turn conversation. Each one contains a question, followed by a starter for a response, and then a comment responding to that response. You can take either role in the conversation (the person asking the question and giving the comment at the end, or the person answering the question).
Note, the pictures used in this resource are from Widget (Communicate in Print 2).
Created 15 July 2015.
Makes a choice when offered (items)
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing Between Toys - Desired and undesired toys, other objects | To begin with hold out a liked toy and a neutral object like a piece of paper - encourage the child to reach for what they want. When they can do this consistently hold out two toys - encourage the child to reach to choose. | Vary which side you hold the toys out to ensure that the child doesn't always reach in one direction. Occasionally, when the child has been reaching for what they want swap the toys around and see whether they still reach for the same one. Always label what they choose for example "snake ... you want the snake...". |
| Choosing Between Food - Two types of food | As above Always label what the child chooses or reaches for. For example: 'Oh, rice, mmmm' Make appropriate sounds like 'mmmmmm', 'yum yum' etc. |
Use a simple conversational structure over three turns
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| How are you? | Two turns
Three turns Once two turns is mastered as above, move to three turns:
| For the three turns part, if a student makes a different response to the answer to their question than one of the possible responses on the prompt cards then that's fine as long as it is relevant. Otherwise, prompt them to make a response from one of the prompt cards. You could show different prompt cards, or you could show just one prompt card for the response in the last turn. |
| What have you been doing? | For this activity, a student using a contraction of the question is also fine (e.g. "What doing"), this activity is about creating turns in a conversation. | |
| Topic of interest - what have you got? Prompt cards for a "what have you got" conversation Set of pictures (e.g from Google) relating to a topic of interest to the student - e.g. Tesco, the park, Eastenders. |
Simple topic maintenance
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| My interests |
| |
| Topic introduction
| ||
| Talk about it
| Optional:
| |
| Likes and dislikes Something to record the students responses on (e.g. paper/pen) which can later be used as a prompt; Soft ball or beanbag. | 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. | |
| What have you done today? Way of recording students responses - e.g. paper/pen, whiteboard/marker; Soft ball or beanbag. |
Strategies for eliciting single words/short phrases/gestures
various contributors
Created 3 October 2014; updated 27 August 2015.
Strategies for eliciting single words/short phrases/gestures
| Activity name/materials | Instructions | Comments |
| Wrong picture names! Materials: Set of pictures of everyday objects - these should be cards that the child knows the names of |
Select a picture on an eye gaze frame
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Picture pairs Plastic perspex sheet with hole in the middle, around 40cm x 30cm (e.g "E-tran frame"); Two sets of everyday picture cards - or whatever the student is interested in. |
| If the student has difficulties, you can try pointing it at each position on the frame - starting from their top left and working across and down - say "is it here" at each position ("no!") - until you get to the right position, say "yes" "here's the....". Say "look at the....", then ask them and say "where was the....?" - taking your eyes slowly to the position - trying to take the student's eyes with you. When you get there, take it off, pretend to eat it (for example) and then put it on the "done" pile with the other card. More ideas about this here from Call Scotland. Going further When a student can do this with one picture, try adding more pictures on the frame (distractor pictures). Start with two, then three/four (one on each corner), then gradually up to seven (each corner and the middle of each side except the bottom side. Put the target card - the one you are working on - in one of the positions you are using. |
| Find the picture/item Plastic perspex sheet with hole in the middle, around 40cm x 30cm (e.g "E-tran frame"); Two sets of everyday picture cards - or whatever the student is interested in. | If the student has difficulties, you can try pointing it at each position on the frame - starting from their top left and working across and down - say "is it here" at each position ("no!") - until you get to the right position, say "yes" "here's the....". Say "look at the....", then ask them and say "where was the....?" - taking your eyes slowly to the position - trying to take the student's eyes with you. When you get there, take it off, and pretend to eat it/drive it etc. More ideas about this here from Call Scotland. Going further When a student can do this with one picture, try adding more pictures on the frame (distractor pictures). Start with two, then three/four (one on each corner), working up to seven (each corner and the middle of each side except the bottom side. Put the target card - the one you are working on - in one of the positions you are using. | |
| Confirmation using a "special spot" Plastic perspex sheet with hole in the middle, around 40cm x 30cm (e.g "E-tran frame"); Two sets of everyday picture cards - or whatever the student is interested in. | The idea of this activity is for the student to learn how they can confirm a choice. It is necessary to have some way of them confirming a choice because:
All these will make it difficult to be sure what they are trying to communicate. The "special spot" (which could for example be a red circle stuck in the bottom middle of the frame) can be a point that a student to look to to:
|
Responds to who what and why
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| The who/what/why sheet Sheet with 3 columns, one headed "who?", one headed "what?", one headed "why?" Brick cube 'Wh' word symbols You can make these resources using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. |
|
Responds to why questions
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Emotions picture cards Picture cards with emotions Optional - choice of pictures showing possible reasons - for example a picture of a boy who has fallen over to go with a picture of a boy who is crying. |
| |
| Why is it.... One or more pictures showing scenes - for example someone running away, a hot beach. Or... Pictures in a book. | ||
| A desirable and a non-desirable toy Two toys one desirable and one not. |
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