Being able to express wants and needs is an essential component of functional communication. Without functional communication training in this area, some students may use behaviors such as pulling staff towards an item, grabbing desired items from others, or taking desired items themselves. If what the student wants or needs is not readily available, other unexpected behaviors may pop up because they do not have a way to communicate with others their desires. Today's Communication Corner provides a variety of modes that students can be taught to express their wants and needs through requesting items or activities.
Objects
Some students may benefit from using actual object representations of what they want. They can choose the object from a choice board or communication binder.
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Katianne Cattrell
Warder Park Wayne Elementary, Springfield |
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Christine Scarborough
Tecumseh Elementary, Xenia |
Pictures
Visual Supports are an evidence-based practice for students with autism that can easily incorporated into functional communication training. Photographs and picture symbols can be used to represent what the student wants to request. Students will need to be directly taught how to exchange the picture for what they want or need. They may not be able to discriminate pictures right away. Therefore, start with one picture and build the student's requesting vocabulary gradually. In some classrooms, the pictures are placed where the desired item is located. For instance, snack pictures placed on the cabinet where the food is stored.
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Lindsey Woods
Fairborn Primary, Fairborn |
Eventually, staff may use a communication binder to store the students pictures in a central location. The student should always have access to their binder at all times and it should travel with the student throughout the school.
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Amy Damico
Montgomery County ESC |
Initially, the targeted vocabulary is placed on the top of the binder. Once pictures are stored within the binder, students may need help with navigating.
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Nancy Cera
Brookville Elementary, Brookville |
Eventually, staff will directly teach students how the binder is categorized to help them navigate more independently. Color-coding is a great way to provide non-verbal organization cues for students.
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Jennifer McGowan
Smith Middle School, Vandalia |
As student's continue to develop their language skills, picture supports can also be used to clarify their wants and needs. For example in the picture below, the student has earned the opportunity to go on a walk as seen on their visual contract. They use their communication binder to clarify that they would like to walk outside.
AAC
Another mode for communication wants and needs is the use of AAC devices. These devices can range from single-step switches to static display devices such to dynamic display devices. The student's Speech and Language Pathologist can assist the team in determining the best device and number of cells appropriate for the student.
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Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering |
Like the communication notebook, color coding can be used to differentiate between word types.
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Jennifer Mroczka
Rosa Parks Elementary, Dayton |
Staff should model the use of the device for the student. Use caution however because some students are very protective of their own AAC device and may be resistant or uncomfortable with others using it.
Signs or Gestures
Sign Language or specific gestures can be directly taught to the student to help them make requests as well. Sometimes students prefer this methods because it is faster than locating pictures in the binder or on their device. Even for students who use other modes of communication, teaching a couple of quick signs (i.e. "break", "more", "help") for in the moment may help decrease frustration.
In the general education classroom below, students are taught gestures for requesting and teacher responses to decrease the amount of disruptions during learning.
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Kim Kohlrus
Beverly Gardens Elementary, Mad River |
Scripts
Scripting is another evidence-based practice for autism in which students are taught scripts to meet their communication needs. Using scripting, students can be directly taught a single word, sentence, or phrase to make requests. For some, a script can be taught and cued using a verbal
model only. For most, however,
information is better processed visually using signs, words or pictures.
Sentence strips are a common component of the scripting strategy. Sentence strips may vary depending on the students reading level. Some sentence strips use picture symbols while others are just text.
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Brittany Bush
Spinning Hills Middle School, Mad River |
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Angie Kleinhans
Stebbins High School, Mad River |
The verbal or visual model can be reduced to a partial sentence, allowing the student to complete the message independently.
When using written or picture scripts, the
visual script can be presented by the adult to cue the language in the moment,
or the learner can keep the script as a reminder when going into a situation
where the target language is needed. Gradually fade the script by only providing a
partial script until the learner can independently say the target language at
the appropriate moment.
As you can see, there are a multitude of modes that can be used in teaching your student to functionally communicate their wants and needs by making requests. Your student's Speech and Language Pathologist can provide valuable information regarding which mode to use and when.
For more ideas on strategies for Functional Communication Training check out our previous Communication Corner posts:
