Using Communication Scripts & New SPED Forum

Students with expressive communication deficits have a difficult time expressing themselves. They need to be taught how to communicate and how to have a conversation with others. Typically, expressive communication deficits are seen in our students with Autism. Vocabulary development, rehearsal, and practicing the use of language during social situations are methods that can be used to help these children. But in some cases, these children have their labels down and have the vocabulary knowledge, they just don't know how to use it. So how do we teach them??

One method I recently began using with one of my students is "Communication Scripts." With communication scripts, we provide the child with a script of exactly what to say. This begins to teach them the back-and-forth nature of communication as well as decreases their dependency of verbal prompts. Prior to using the scripts, I was verbally prompting this student and she was becoming prompt dependent. For example, if she was pointing to computer, I would say to her, "Say computer." 

The communication scripts will promote more independent verbal communication, require more than one word, model more natural speech, and is much easier to fade than a verbal prompt. Here are a few examples of some of the scripts I have made for my student. 

Now these will be different for each child. I made these centered around activities and situations that specifically occur in this child's day. To make yours, just ask yourself "What does the child point to during the day?" "What situations require the student to speak during the day?" "When am I currently prompting this child?"

Now of course with any prompt, you will want to fade as soon as possible! You'll also want to give the child immediate praise every time for "using their words." Let them know it's a good thing and that you are proud of them! 

If you have further questions on this topic, I'd like to introduce to you my new SPED discussion forum I started today on my FB page! There are discussion forums all over the web for general Ed teachers, but nothing for Special Educators!! Even on our campuses, most Sped teachers continue to lack the support and advice that general Ed teachers have right at their fingertips! I'm the only SPED teacher at my school besides the Resource Room teacher, so I have no one to turn to if I need advice or no department to collaborate with!  

Here's how it works! Every Thursday afternoon I will post the button above on my FB page inviting teachers to post their SPED related questions. I will then post the most relevant questions throughout the week and try to get answers for you! And it just went live today......so what are you waiting for??? Head over to my FB page and post your question!!! Easy access to my page {here}.

Look forward to hearing from you!

FREE PHOTO CARDS, PLACE VALUE, & BLOGGING TIP

Busy, busy weekend! So much to do.......
and it's already Sunday! Yikes! I'm spending entirely too much time on blogging and creating, that I'm not getting anything else done that I should be. But....oh well, I'm having fun! I say that I need to figure out a way to manage my time more wisely, but yea right?....That never happens, cause I always seem to find more things to do!

So before I give you your Sunday Blogging Tip......I will share my two freebies with you that have been tying up my time this weekend! 

 This was a quicky creation, but was much needed in my classroom, and has been on my to-do list! I teach a multi-level classroom, grades 1-5, and my two fifth graders are really struggling with place value. I will laminate this on cardstock and use a dry-erase marker to write in numbers so that these students can practice daily. 

You can get it at Math Monday Blog Hop or {here}.

This is the creation that took up so much of my time, but I am very happy with the ending results. I'm not completely satisfied with the cover, but it is the content that counts!! I have searched everywhere for photo cards to teach my beginning language kids two word labeling and have not been able to find what I need! So in the blogging world, I've learned........

If you can't find it.....create it!!! RIGHT?

So, I did just that! And they are just what I was looking for! 

When teaching kids beginning language, we teach them ball, cake, jet, dog, shoes, ice cream, cat, hat, soup, etc. and that's what we are supposed to do, but once they master one word labeling, we must then begin to teach them two word labeling. 

Ex. Rather than cake, teach them to label white or chocolate cake.

Rather than ball, teach them basketball, soccer ball, and football.

Rather than shoes, teach them boots and tennis shoes. 

You get the jist! With these photo cards, you can teach your students to differentiate between 42 different categories. There are  3 photo cards included for each category.

Now, for "Bloomin' Blogger Sundays".........

Today's tip will be how to add "Labels" to your blog! For the longest time, I saw this on other blogs and never knew how to do it! Now that I know, I will show you! Labels are much like an index. It makes it very easy for your readers to see the content of your blog and allow them to easily find what they are looking for.  


To Create Your Labels:

Step 1: After you write your post, click on "Labels." You will see it to the right of your post under "Post settings" as you see here>>

Step 2: Type in keywords to describe your post (e.g. Linky Party, giveaway, freebie, Currently, Addition, Fractions, St. Patrick's Day, etc.). Separate each with a comma. 

Step 3: Click done, then publish your post. 

That's it.....you're done!!

**Blogger will automatically store the labels you have used so that for future posts including the same labels, you will only have to click on them and will not have to type them in every time. 

**NOW.....this happened to me. If you notice that your labels are appearing underneath your post, but are not appearing in your sidebar labels, you will need to do this. 

Step 4: Click on the edit tool icon below your labels on your live blog page, or go to the "layout" of your blog design and click edit from there. The "configure labels" screen below will appear like the one below. Deselect "selected labels" by selecting "all labels." All of your labels will now automatically appear in your labels on your sidebar. 

Step 5: Optional--You can also choose from this window how you want your labels to look. You can choose "list" or "cloud," "alphabetically" or "by frequency," and whether you want to show the number of posts by each label. 

If you don't have the labels gadget in your sidebar, this is how you can add it. Go to:
>design (in the top right corner of your blog)
>layout (left sidebar)
>add a gadget

When the "add a gadget" screen appears, scroll down to labels. Click on it and add. 

Give it a title, and click save. 

You can hold down your cursor and drag the labels gadget where you want it positioned in your sidebar. 


I will be out of my class four days next week and be MIA! Yes, 4 days! I'm a little worried about that! I shouldn't be, because I have two fabulous aides and a great substitute coming in, but I just hate being away that many days! It should be worth it though......I'm attending a 4-day hands-on Autism training in Las Vegas. I am hoping to learn lots to bring back and share!