Sensational Social Skills: Teaching Voice Volume

Voice regulation can be challenging for many of our students. A volume that does not match the social situation and expectation can impact the way others think about that student and can interfere with communication or learning. Simply telling a student to use a quiet voice may not be enough. Today's Sensational Social Skills post will provide 5 steps to help your student regulate volume. 

1.   Build Awareness

First, engage the student in activities that build awareness of different voice volumes. Model different volumes and talk about situations when certain voice volumes should be used. Introduce a visual voice volume tool to provide a visual representation of different voice volumes. At this step, you are teaching the student how different levels on the voice volume tool look, sound, and feel.

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

It helps to have an interactive scale that shows the changes by moving a marker. This voice meter uses a moveable star to illustrate the changes in volume.

Marissa Steinhelfer
Harry Russell Elementary, West Carrollton

Consider incorporating a special interest theme to increase the student's interest in the voice meter. In this interactive cat voice meter, the ball of yarn is moved up and down to show the voice volume.

Sarah Vikan
Harry Russell Elementary, West Carrollton

This video shows you how to make a voice volume wheel: 

Your student may benefit from a social story or narrative to help them understand why it is important to use a volume that is just right for the situation. Teachers Pay Teachers has a variety of pre-made Voice Volume Social Stories available.

Decibella is a great book to teach your younger students about voice volume: 

2. Practice Control

Next, provide opportunities for the student to practice controlling their volume during structured activities. This video from How to ABA illustrates how you might practice volume control during structured activities:

In addition to an interactive voice volume tool, consider the use of an app that provides instant feedback to let the student pair what they hear with what they see. Check out this app: 

Dragon Fly Apps: Voice Meter Pro

3. Prime Volume Expectation

Once the student has demonstrated the ability to control the volume of their voice during structured practice activities, you can begin to help them apply this skill in situations across the day. Prime the use of a target volume prior to the situation. The visual used to prime the expected volume should be similar to the visual used during structured practice. The student needs to know what the target volume sounds like, looks like (on the visual), and how it feels.


The student can be presented with an individual priming tool or you can prime the whole class. Here are examples of a whole class tool to prime for the expected voice volume.

Mary Schuler
Fairborn Intermediate, Fairborn

Kelsey Keen
Tri-Village Elementary, Tri-Village

 

4. Prompt Volume Expectation

After the student has been primed to use the target voice volume and they enter the situation, use a nonverbal prompt if the student starts to move away from the target volume. This can be a reference to the voice volume tool, a “quiet voice” image, or a hand gesture to show the expected voice level.

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

These voice volume scales pair numbers and hand signals with voice levels to provide an easy way to prompt the student to find the right volume in the moment.

Taylor Ruef
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

5. Reinforce Target Volume

It will be important to give the student feedback to let them know when they are on target. Consider a nonverbal reinforcement such as referring to the visual tool, giving a thumbs up, or providing a written note. If your student needs more tangible reinforcement, a sticker or edible can be provided when the student stays in the target range for a predetermined time frame. One team considered adding a picture of a special interest item (Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas) to the interactive voice meter to indicate when the student’s voice was in the expected voice range she could have Sally.

Sarah Vikan
Harry Russell Elementary, West Carrollton

Keep in mind that if a student is dysregulated, the student may not be able to control their volume. In this case, the best priming, prompting and reinforcement may not help. Determine if the student needs a calming break or if there is an issue that needs to be addressed to help the student feel more regulated and in control.

A-LIST Spotlight: Rylie Jarrett, Intervention Specialist at Stevenson Elementary in Mad River Local Schools

Get ready because today's A-LIST Spotlight is overflowing with fabulous ideas from Intervention Specialist Rylie Jarrett from Stevenson Elementary in Mad River Local Schools!

We can't wait to share everything from Rylie's class. She is a fantastic teacher, visual support expert, and great partner to our coaching team. In fact, Rylie graciously welcomed us into her classroom this year to allow a live stream for 13 educators across 6 regional districts so that they could see best practices in action followed by a live Q&A session so Rylie could share additional resources and answer questions. It was an awesome opportunity and attendees are still raving about it!

Transition Supports

The first set of supports we want to share from Rylie's classroom are her transition supports. She does an excellent job priming students for transitions using the visual countdown, using a location-based schedule to help them transition to the correct location, using visual supports to assist with lining up when needed, and providing anchor activities when there is downtime between transitions. 

Additionally, positional cues help students know exactly where to go during carpet times or lining up which makes transitions smooth. 

Structured Work Systems

Once students transition to their designated location within the classroom, Rylie uses structured work systems to present work in a predictable way. This helps to communicate clear expectations and reduce escape behaviors. 

Academic Supports

Another way Rylie reduces escape behaviors is through making learning engaging and accessible for her young learners. She uses a variety of hands-on tasks and visuals to scaffold learning.

Communication Supports

To further support her students' learning and functional skills, Rylie uses a variety of low-tech and high-tech AAC to help her students communicate. 

Organization

Being this good requires staying organized! Rylie has a variety of organizational supports to keep learning materials readily accessible and to clearly communicate with her paraprofessionals. 

Sensory

One area Rylie excels at is meeting her students' sensory needs. It is evident Rylie believes that in order to educate you first must regulate! She provides students with boundaries, adaptive seating supports, sensory breaks, and heavy work to meet their various needs. 

Behavior Supports

In addition to meeting her students' academic, communication, and sensory needs, Rylie helps them learn essential behavior regulation skills. She knows behavior stems from underlying skill deficits and works hard to proactively prime students and provide visuals to help them in the moment. 

Rylie's students are so lucky to have her and so are we! We love working with Rylie and look forward to seeing more of her awesome supports in action in the future!