Topic “Expressive Language”  

Only suitable for children who can read simple single words.

If the person is not familiar with making a cup of tea already, you should spend some time doing this - talking them through what you are doing as you make the tea.

The key principle here is to give the minimum amount of prompting. You will need to adjust the level of prompting so that the person is a little bit challenged by the task - but not so much that there are long pauses (what constitutes a long pause will vary from person to person).

As far as possible, you are trying to literally do what the person says - so if they say something that's potentially ambiguous, choose a more amusing interpretation of what they have said. The idea is that this activity should be really fun, and also prompt the person to try and add more information and be more accurate.

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).

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.

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.

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.

If it is a familiar story to the child you could just give them time to remember it instead of telling it yourself first.

This works best as a group activity.

This activity compliments the "What happened?" work from the Black Sheep Press Narrative Pack.

You need two adults for this activity - or alternatively you could have two puppets. One of the puppets goes away whilst the other one does something a bit naughty. The children then have to tell the puppet who went away what happened.

Having the children describe what happened to a person who didn't see is more natural than asking them to talk to someone who also saw the event. It gives them a reason to communicate.

To start with, have Molly do one or two things while the adult is out of the room. As the children become more used to the activity, increase this number. This gives them more to remember.

If working with a mixed ability group, the more able children can be asked to use the language of sequencing (e.g. "first", "second", "then", "next", "last" etc.)

Avoid working on "less" and "more" together as there is a risk that the child may confuse them.

When the child is able to use "less" and "more" on separate occasions in separate activities, you can then use both together in this activity - e.g. ask "More/less banana here?" and so on.

You could do this activity at snack time - sharing some fruit between two or more children.

You need to make the learning very visible.

Allow the child to explore materials and give time to respond to questions.

Give lots of opportunity for repetition.

Provide a central group of items against which 'less' can be compared.

Avoid working on "less" and "more" together as there is a risk that the child may confuse them.

When the child is able to use "less" and "more" on separate occasions in separate activities, you can then use both together in this activity: use three beakers, have more in one beaker and less in another (than the central beaker).

Avoid working on "less" and "more" together as there is a risk that the child may confuse them.

When the child is able to use "less" and "more" on separate occasions in separate activities, you can then use both together in this activity: use three sheets, have more in one sheet and less on the other (than the central sheet).

Avoid working on "less" and "more" together as there is a risk that the child may confuse them.

Work in short bursts.

Keep the experience fun and light hearted.

Give the child enough time to explore the toys and enough time to try to use the toy themselves.

Give lots of praise for any success.

You want the child to be able to open the container independently and help themselves.

Give lots of time to explore the objects and praise for any success.

Give lots of opportunities to learn by repeating the activity.