Search
User login
Topic “P4-P8”
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
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 |
Number action rhymes
Below are some action number rhymes which you can use to develop children’s understanding of numbers and also encourage them to initiate and continue the song/interaction with you.
Remember to sing these songs a few times with your child and show them how to move their hands/body by modelling it yourself.
Text mangle tool
See the "comments" link associated with this page for more information about this tool.
What this tool is for
The purpose of this tool is to be able to get a flavour of:
- What an early reader might get from text;
- What can be gained from text where only a selected number of high frequency words are used;
- How a strategy of signing could assist comprehension;
- Or...to create your own Jaberwocky poem!
See the comments page for more information on this tool.
Reading your school or college timetable
| Activity name and materials required |
Common irregular past tense verbs
These can be used with activities sheets from www.commtap.org including:
- make phrases in past tense using irregular verbs 1
- make phrases in past tense using irregular verbs 2
Some common irregular past tense verbs for use in the above activities
See below if you are not sure what an irregular past tense verb is.
Develop language skills through cookery
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding on the ingredients Pen; Paper; Optional - picture symbols for food items you need; An idea for what you are going to make. If using, you can make picture symbol cards using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. |
See comments for variations on doing this. | Making it easier: Have a set of pictures of ingredients which are appropriate for what you are making, and some other ingredients. Get the children to choose the appropriate ingredients. Even easier: Have a set of pictures for the ingredients, and some further pictures which aren't food (e.g. pictures of furniture, clothes). Help the child to choose those which are food items. Harder: Get the children to draw and/or write down the ingredients themselves. |
| Buying ingredients
You can make a shopping list with symbols using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. | On subsequent occasions, you can pretend that you have a really bad memory, and you need the children to help you to remember what to take. If they don't remember everything, you can look a bit confused, and say something like "I'm sure we need to take something else...". You could also use ideas based on the comments in "Deciding on the ingredients". | |
| Making the item
| If the children are familiar with cooking this item, but they sequenced the pictures for doing the activity incorrectly at the beginning, you don't necessarily have to correct them straight away - you can correct it at the point when it becomes a problem - e.g. if you get to the putting the pizza in the oven bit before you've put the sauce and toppings on (look very confused!). Sketches for the sequence - these do not need to be accurate at all - they will be useful for this activity no matter what level of drawing ability you have. The children can also help with this. You can incorporate a number of maths concepts into the activities, for example: "full", "empty", "more", "less", "hot", "cold". Safety. Clearly you will need to manage any dangerous aspects of the cooking process as appropriate for the children you are working with (e.g. use of knives, the cooker). |
Support Commtap to keep it online
Thank you for visiting Commtap.
Commtap needs £5,000 per year to cover its basic running costs, we only have £1,000 left. Please make a donation now.
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.
It costs £5,000 a year to cover Commtap's basic day-to-day running costs. We have £1,000 left.
Right now, less than 1% of Commtap's visitors pay anything towards the running of the site.
We know that not everyone is able to afford to pay to access these resources, however, if you can, please make a minimum donation of £10 to keep the site going.
Thank you
Google ads on this page are provided by Google Adsense - and their presence does not imply any endorsement by Commtap. Report a problem with an ad on this page. Log in (for free) to avoid seeing Google ads.
