Topic “Adult”  

The child/adult should experience holding down the switch and feeling the breeze. On release the breeze stops.

State, "On" and "Off" as you and the child/adult press and release the switch.

As either of you press the switch say, "on." When it stops say "off." Show them the effect of the breeze, blowing your hair or rubbing your arms because it is cold.

Let the child/adult turn the fan on and off modelling the vocabulary as you go.

Reinforce this learning with different devices at different times and places.

Don't use two things which are motivating for the student as you won't be able to tell whether they've succeeded in expressing a choice or not.

You may need to work with an occupational therapist to establish what type of switch a student can use - particularly if they have complex physical difficulties.

If they don't press a switch you may need to:

1. Show the student by example;
2. Guide their hand to the switch for the motivating item.

Consistency of pressing

Do they appear to be pressing one switch more than another, or do they appear to be choosing the switch randomly? Swapping the switches around from time to time will help you to know this. If they aren't consistent, you could try making the switches more different, for example:

• different colours;
• one larger than another;
• symbols which are more clearly different;
• different texture on the surface of each switch;

You could also try:

• disabling the switch for the unmotivating option so that when it's clicked nothing happens (in case hearing the voice from this switch is in itself motivating).

These are the main instructions for the activities. Use this with the games below.

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

Introduce each food item;

Check which ones the people are interested in;

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

Wait - give time for the person 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 person is not just saying the last thing you say;

Make it difficult for the person 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 person 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 person the thing they said/signed for. If they are having difficulties with this - for example they 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 person doesn't want (if the person 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 person 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 person 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 someone to repeat after you as there is no communication and it's not a natural way to communicate - by asking someone to repeat you have shown them that you have understood, and so this is now a different repetition activity (and perhaps a bit insulting!) - it also has the danger that it could reduce the accuracy of what they originally said or signed as they didn't get a direct result from this.

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.