Transcript Environmental Communication Teaching (ECT) with Students Who

Environmental
Communication Teaching
(ECT) with Students and
Young Children Who Use
Augmentative and
Alternative Communication
DAY 1
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Understanding the Use of ECT in
Classroom and Community Settings
Goals:
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Identify common communication problems
Identify solutions to these problems
Demonstrate use of activity-based objectives
Develop an understanding of integrated
therapy
Select target students and activities
Develop sets of activity-based objectives
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Team Building
Identify core team members
 Identify peripheral team members
 Identify involvement of family
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 explanation
of ECT
 signed permission forms for taping
 viewing videotapes (last session?)
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Identify team meeting opportunities
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Communication Interaction Chart
Wants/Needs
Partner
Social Closeness
P
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P
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Environment
Activity
Information Transfer
Social Etiquette
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Facilitation Strategies that
Promote Communication
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Engaging the child
Commenting on or describing an event or
action
Responding to communication attempts
Waiting for a response
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Facilitation Strategies that
Promote Communication
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Expanding child’s utterances
Prompting for a higher level of response
Increasing opportunities for peer interactive
communication
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Facilitation Strategies that
Promote Communication
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Identifying the communicative intent of
undesirable behavior
Prompting communication to replace
undesirable behavior
Modifying the environment to promote
communication opportunities
Adapted from Teachers’ Use of Strategies to Facilitate the Communication of
Preschool Children with Disabilities. Journal of Early Intervention, 1991, Vol. 15,
pp. 358-371.
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Group Activity
School Survival Skills
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Review the skills and identify which
items involve communication and
which do not.
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The Basics of Environmental
Communication Teaching
Arranging the environment
 Selecting communication targets
 Responding to the child’s initiations
 Reinforcing the child’s communicative
attempts
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Remember:
“Incidental teaching episodes
are brief, positive, and
oriented towards
COMMUNICATION
rather than languageteaching, per se.”
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Parameters for Successful Assistive
Technology Implementation
What you need to make it work:
 A Committed Team
-Knowledge of the student/young
child
-Willingness to increase technical
proficiency with the device/
equipment
-Commitment to dynamic reevaluation
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Parameters for Successful Assistive
Technology Implementation
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Instructional Best Practices
-Integrated therapy
-Curricular goals for present and future
-Activities that are realistic and functional
-Strategies for success
-An organized classroom/environment
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Administrative and Family Support
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VIDEO/Vanessa
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Group Activity
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Brainstorm in small groups
 Common
characteristics of students who
use or need AAC
 Common partner characteristics
– instructional language
– interaction patterns
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Common Characteristics of
Students using AAC
They:
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Rarely initiate interactions
Primarily respond to others’ initiations
Usually communicate via modes other
than their communication aid/device
Head nods and shakes in response to
yes/no questions are the most frequently
used mode
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Common Characteristics of
Students using AAC
Unintelligible vocalizations are
common
 Spontaneous communication is less
complex than in elicited situations
 Rarely interact with peers
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Additional Concerns Facing Students
and Young Children Who Use AAC
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Communication system not available when
student or young child needs to communicate
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Communication system available but
vocabulary or message needed is not there
when student or young child needs to
communicate
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Additional Concerns Facing Students
and Young Children Who Use AAC
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Vocabulary or messages available on AAC
display not appropriate to the situation or
activity
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Message gloss is missing or is insufficient for
partners to comprehend intended message
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Partner Characteristics
Communication Interaction Style
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Adults
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Tend to dominate the interactions
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Preempt the student’s or young child’s turn
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Don’t give students or young children time to
formulate messages
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Often fail to respond to student’s or young
child’s initiations
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Often anticipate the student’s or young child’s
needs and thoughts, making it unnecessary for
them to communicate
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Partner Characteristics
Instructional Language Style
Adults:
 Use rhetorical speech for which answers are
not being solicited
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Use “Fills” and “Tags” which obscure the
meaningful message or cancel intended effect
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May sometimes double-state messages
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Solutions
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Develop an understanding of the three major
aspects of the intervention process
 Understand the communicative
requirements of activities
 Understand how partners can act to
facilitate, rather than inhibit, the student’s
or young child's communication skills
 Understand how AAC is developed from
within the context of particular activities,
not as a separate enterprise
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Solutions
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Understand the communicative requirements
of everyday activities
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Examine various social contexts in which
interaction might occur:
– Structure of social interactions
– How interactions are initiated and maintained
– How communicative functions are used within
interactions
 Examine
how ABO’s can be used as a
planning and communication tool for
teams
 Identify ways to modify current activities
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Solutions
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Understand how partners can
facilitate the effective use of
communication through the use of:
 environmentally-based
cues
 a unique prompt hierarchy
 the use of appropriate descriptive
feedback
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Solutions
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Understand how to develop and
integrate AAC within the context of
activities
 Determine
the communication potential
of routine activities
 Develop AAC strategies for routine
activities
 Integrate AAC into educational,
vocational, and community activities
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Practices that Support a
Curriculum-Based Model
[Using Activity-Based Objectives
as a way to Structure IEP Goals]
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Identify natural environments
Identify significant activities in those
environments
Identify specific skills required
Determine discrepancies between current and
desired performance
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Components Needed to Insure
Success of Curriculum-based Model
Integrated Services
 Skill Cluster Instruction
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Skill Clusters
Language
Computer
Fine Motor
Functional
Academics
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Central Premises of
Skill Cluster Instruction
Movement, communication, social
interaction, problem solving, recall, etc.,
are required components of most
functional routines.
 Routines provide excellent
opportunities to integrate priorities and
methods from a variety of disciplines.
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An Average Day
Activity
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Activity
Breakdown
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Requirements for an Activity
 How
is it Initiated?
 Where
does it begin?
– What is the transition from the previous
activity?
 Who
begins it?
 How is it begun?
– What is said or done?
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Requirements for an Activity
 How
is it Maintained?
 What
are the operations that must be
carried out?
– With what must they be done?
– Who must do them?
 What
must be said to carry them out?
– Who must say these things?
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Requirements for an Activity
 How
is it Terminated?
 What
actions end the activity?
– Who does them?
– When
 Who
ends the activity?
– What do they say?
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Brainstorm
Vanessa’s
Activity
Initiate
Terminate
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Selecting Target Activities
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Activities selected should correspond
as much as possible with the following
characteristics:
 The
activity is “process” rather than
“product” oriented
 The activity represents a class of activities
 More than one “selection” for the activity
type can be offered at any given time
 The activity occurs for the student or
young child 3-4 times each week
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Using the ABO Format
What the student must do or say
 Vocabulary that must be available
 How the messages will be represented
 The message selection technique that
will be used
 Information about the AAC Display
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Guidelines for Preparing ActivityBased Objectives
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Should Describe Final Objectives of
the Activity
 They
describe the activity at the final
criterion (independence, independent but
with personal assistance, etc.) level.
 If memory aids, such as picture sequence
charts, or assistive devices, such as
adapted chairs or tools, will be
permanently used, they should be
reflected within the objectives.
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Guidelines for Preparing ActivityBased Objectives
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Should state what the student or young
child will do or say to complete the activity
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Do not state what the student or young child
“Will learn to do”
Do not include the teaching cues and prompts
that may be needed in order to teach the student
or young child
Teaching cues and prompts can be documented
separately
Cues and prompts are added and taken away as
needed
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Guidelines for Preparing ActivityBased Objectives
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Use only verbs such as ASK, TELL, SAY,
ANSWER to describe the communication of
the student
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Remember that all communication has equal
value regardless of the modes being used
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Respond to unintelligible verbalizations or
indistinct gestures by requesting that the
student tell “it” another way
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VIDEO
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Write ABO’s
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VIDEO/Tricia
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Write ABO’s
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Exercise #1
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For one of the activities that you
“roughed out” on the Activity
Breakdown form:
 Determine
which team members would be
involved (OT, PT, SLP, T, A)
 Identify the communication opportunities
 Brainstorm the messages that need to be
available
 Identify any IF statements that could
develop
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Communication Interaction Chart
Wants/Needs
Partner
Social Closeness
P
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P
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Environment
Activity
Information Transfer
Social Etiquette
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Famous Quotes
“It’s easy to be an over-achiever in
the land of lowered expectations.”
Michael Williams, AAC User
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Selecting Target Students or
Young Children
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Students or young children should meet one
of the following criteria:
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Already has minimal competence in the
operation of an AAC approach
Uses an AAC approach to respond, but not
initiate
An initial AAC approach has been developed
Demonstrates some “desire” to communicate,
or
– demonstrates strong preferences or dislikes,
or
– attempts to maintain participation
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Day 2 Reminders
Start time: 8:30 a.m.
 Bring back your
participant’s hand-out
 Review the student/activity selection
forms in your packet and be prepared
to complete and hand-in on Day 2
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Famous Quotes
“Don’t limit your challenges.
Challenge your limits.”
1996 Boston Marathon Winner
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