Transcript Section 1 Presentation

“How to Bring out the
Extraordinary in Your Child”
for Parents of Children with Social Communication Delays
Presented by:
Charlene Sigman, M.S.Ed.,CCC-SLP
Our Plan Together
“You aren’t expected to know this!”
Happy Talkers
Experience
Principles Based
on Early Start
Denver Model
and others
Small-Group and
Individual
Coaching
Custom
Solution
for YOUR
child’s
needs
 Evidence-based intervention specifically developed for very
young children with autism.
 Play-based intervention that fuses behavioral and
developmental principles into an integrated approach.
 Levels cover all areas of development and help set goals
for intervention in the home and at school
 For more information, www.esdm.us
ESDM certification provided by UC Davis MIND Institute.
Happy Talkers has been training since 2013 and anticipated completion by
2015. Certification funded by County Supervisor, Measure A.
Introductions
My name
is:
My child’s
name, age
and
siblings:
My biggest
challenge
with my
child is:
What I
love most
about my
child is:
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILD
Autism (ASD)
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILD
Social Communication Difficulties
Why I KNOW you have what it takes
You know your child best
You care most about your child
You are the most constant and
important person in your child’s life
You are your child’s advocate
Your child is your mirror
8 SURE-FIRE STRATEGIES
WITH YOUR CHILD
 PRAISE
 Have a routine
 SLOW DOWN
 Let them know what is
going to happen and
what is expected
 Get eye-to-eye
 Say your child’s name
before giving a direction
 Know what motivates
your child
 Talk about a similar
situation when they
behaved appropriately
What works when your child is upset?
YOUR CHILD
WILL LEARN TO
COMMUNICATE
WHEN THEY…
 Pay attention to you
 Find enjoyment in conversation
 Copy the things that you do and say
 Understand what others say
 Interact with other people
 Have fun!
 Practice what they learn
 Have structure, repetition and
predictability in their life
…& WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR CHILD
SOMETIMES IT’S CLEAR.
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR CHILD’S:
LIKES
OTHER TIMES YOU NEED TO
OBSERVE CLOSELY.
 What is your child’s:
 Favorite toy?
 Favorite food?
 Type of physical play?
 Favorite person?
 Favorite activity?
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building
interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social
communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Page- 3-5
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR CHILD’S:
PERCEPTION OF
THE WORLD
 Sensory Processing starts when our
eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin
receive information from the
environment.
 That information is then sent to the
brain, where it is processed and
interpreted.
 Over-sensitive children are HIGHLY
stimulated by a small amount of
sensation.
 Under-sensitive children seek out the
sensations they need (running,
rocking, jumping)
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR CHILD’S:
MOTOR
PLANNING
 Difficulty planning and carrying out
movements (pedal bike, throwing
and catching)
 May bump into things
 May play with toys in a repetitive
way (easier)
 May have trouble talking (coordinate
mouth, tongue and voice)
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building
interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social
communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Pages 7-8
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILD
Learning Style
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILD’S:
LEARNING STYLE
Do their memories have facts and
details?
Do they learn the big picture?
How your child acquires
information determines their
Learning Style.
WHAT TYPE OF LEARNER IS YOUR CHILD?
 ROTE LEARNERS
 Acquire information by
memorizing
 Remember numbers and
letters when they are
young
 Remember many facts
about specific topics
when they are older
 Can recite information
word for word but often
don’t understand what
they are saying
 GESTALT LEARNERS
 Memorize in whole
chunks without
comprehending the
individual words.
 Start talking by
repeating whole
sentences.
 Tend to remember
everything about a
situation but are unable
to sort out the
important things from
unimportant ones.
WHAT TYPE OF LEARNER IS YOUR CHILD?
 VISUAL LEARNERS:
 Learn better by seeing
things than hearing
them.
 HANDS-ON LEARNERS:
 Learn better by
experiencing. Touching
things, pressing
buttons, swinging doors
back and forth, etc.
 AUDITORY LEARNERS:
 Enjoy talking and
listening to others and
learns best through
hearing.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILD
Communication
It’s all about interaction!
 Social interaction is the hardest.
 To be successful, your child needs to respond and
initiate.
 One person sends a message to another person.
 How do you connect with your child?
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building
interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social
communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Pages 18
ECHOLALIA
(REPETITION OF OTHER PEOPLE’S WORDS)
 Your child may repeat words they have heard, without
understanding what they mean.
 There are many different reasons: calming, focusing
attention, practicing talking.
 Good sign: communication is developing
TYPES OF ECHOLALIA
 Immediate: repeat words or phrases immediately after
they are heard. It is usually the last part.
 Delayed: memorizes chunks of words or phrases and
uses them days, weeks, months later. Usually in an
emotional situation. For example, “Put it down”
whenever someone upset. Knows when the words are
used but not what they mean.
 Mitigated: changing echoes using different tones or
changing words. A good sign they are understanding!
WHY YOUR CHILD IS COMMUNICATING
Pre-intentional: your child is doing or saying things without
intending them to have an effect on others.
To calm
To practice
To focus or direct
themselves
To protest or refuse
To react to
experiences
To reach for things
• Not interacting. Avoiding
by pushing hand away,
turning head, crying
WHY YOUR CHILD IS COMMUNICATING
Intentional: Communication has a purpose of sending a message.
CONTINUUM
Requesting for social purposes
•Games with people, interacting with other
children
To request what they want
To protest or refuse
Later:
•Looking directly at you, shaking their head
•responding,
•greeting,
•get attention,
•showing,
•commenting,
•asking questions,
•talking about events,
•expressing feelings,
•pretending
UNDERSTANDING
Stages of Communication
IDENTIFYING THEIR STAGE
Allows you to understand their current ability
and know the best approach to be successful.
STAGE OF COMMUNICATION
DEPENDS UPON
 Your child’s ability to interact with you and others
 How they communicate with you and others
 Why they communicate
 Their understanding
STAGE: OWN AGENDA
 Wants to play alone and appear uninterested in the people around
them.
 Doesn’t understand they can affect others by sending a message to
them (pre-intentional).
 Interacts with you briefly and almost never with other children
 Wants to do things by themselves
 Looks at or reaches for what they want
 Does not communicate intentionally to you
 Plays in unusual ways
 Make sounds to calm themselves
 Cries or scream to protest
 Smiles, laughs
 Understands almost no words
 You need to observe to know how they are feeling
STAGE: REQUESTER

Beginning to realize that their actions can have an effect on you!

Pulls and lead you to things

Asks you for things he needs and enjoys

Likes People Games like Tickles and Peek-a-Boo

If you pause, they may look at you or move their body to get you to keep
playing

Interacts with you briefly

Uses sounds to calm or focus themselves

Echoes a few words to calm or focus themselves

Reaches for what they want

Communicates when they need something (leading you or taking your hand)

Requests that you continue a People Game (eye contact, smile, movement,
sounds)

Occasionally follows familiar directions

Understands the steps in familiar routines
STAGE: EARLY
COMMUNICATOR

Starts to use specific gestures, sounds, pictures or words to ask for things in very motivating
situations (food, toys)

Social interactions last longer and are more intentional (still mainly to ask you to do things for them)

Knows they can use the same form of communication consistently in certain situations (juice or video)
but still continues to pull you to ask for other things.

May echo things they hear to communicate with you.

Understands given visual cues and short, simple sentences.

Interact with you and familiar people in familiar situations

Take more turns in People Games and play for longer

Request that you continue People Games and use the same actions

Request or respond by repeating what you say (immediate echolalia)

Purposefully make requests using pics/words

Protest using the same action or word

Use body movements, gestures, words to get your attention

Understand simple, familiar sentences

Understand the names of familiar objects and people

Say “Hi” and “Bye”

Answer Yes/No, choice and “What’s that?” questions
STAGE: PARTNER

More effectively communicator than children in other stages. They enjoy talking and
carrying-on simple conversations and can talk about past and future.

They sometimes can’t come up with own words and rely on memorized words/phrases. They
may have trouble grasping rules of conversation, may start a conversation with the same
memorized sentence

They like to play with you and other children. Mostly alone because they aren’t sure what to
say so they are more comfortable with physical play than structured games.

Participates in longer interactions

Plays with other children in familiar routines

Uses words or another method of communication to request, protest, greet, draw your
attention to something and ask questions

Starts to use words or another method of communication to talk about past and future,
express feelings and pretend

Makes up their own sentences

Has short conversations

Sometimes repairs what he says when someone doesn’t understand him

Understands the meanings of many different words
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building
interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social
communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Page- 38
“Partners aren’t perfect”
UNDERSTANDING
Your Role
UNDERSTANDING: YOUR
ROLE
Depending on the way you interact with your child, your
personality and your child’s personality, there are common roles
parents play.
 Helper/Teacher Role
 Partner Role
 Do Not Disturb Role
 Cheerleader Role
 Mover Role
ROLE: HELPER/TEACHER
 Your child doesn’t seem to know how to do things, or
isn’t able to communicate.
 You want to help, which is natural
 If you do things for your child, they won’t be able to
show you what they can do. They may be able to do
more than you expected!
 Many times you will NEED to be their “Helper”. There is a
way to do it…
 Use the “Helper Rule” to identify when to be your child’s
“Helper”
 Ask once and WAIT, then ask again, adding HELP.
ROLE: DO NOT DISTURB
 Your child doesn’t seem interested in interacting with
you and rarely demands your attention.
 All children need time to themselves, BUT they also need
to interact.
 Persist in attempts to join in. They need you, but they
may get frustrated. Don’t give up! Try doing things
together.
ROLE: MOVER
 Life is busy, and so are you!
 When you are trying to stay on schedule, you rush
through moments when your child can be learning
something.
 Take an extra five minutes when your child is getting
dressed or eating breakfast.
 Your child needs more time to understand what is going
on around them.
 “Get out of the race and slow down the pace.”
ROLE: PARTNER
 Playing games together may not teach specific skills, but
your child is learning a lot from having you as their play
partner.
 As your child becomes a more able communicator, you
don’t have to give as much direction.
 Let your child lead and respond to what they do.
ROLE: CHEERLEADER
 When you reward your child’s attempts to understand
and communicate, they will want to try again!
 Instead of just “Good job” use descriptive praise. Your
child will know your happy but might not know what
“Good job” means.
 Descriptive Praise tells them exactly why, or what you
are happy with “Great job, you finished your milk”! “I
like how you are playing with your sister!”
 Natural encouragement, “Car” “Ok, let’s play with the
car!”
LET’S SET SOME
COMMUNICATION GOALS!
Your Goals
Once we set the goals, you can address them every day!
Interaction with
other people
Communicating
in new ways
Communicating
for new reasons
Understanding
the connection
between they
say, and what is
happening
GOALS: INTERACTING WITH
YOU AND OTHERS
 Never stop talking, showing, giving opportunities.
 Teaching interaction helps your child:
 Find enjoyment with others
 Understands their effect on others
 Communication is two-way
GOALS: COMMUNICATING IN
NEW WAYS
 Pulling/leading
 Using Pictures
 Gestures
 Sounds/Pictures/Gestures
 WORDS!!!
GOALS: COMMUNICATION
FOR NEW REASONS
 The goal is intentional
communication!
 Progressing from
Requesting to Social
Communication to
talking about Shared
Interests.
 Observe what your child
is trying to communicate
and make an
opportunity for them.
 Requesting is the easiest
to set up:
 Clear plastic bins,
placement of items
 Add new situations
(answering questions,
greeting) and help your
child practice.
GOALS: CONNECTION BETWEEN WORDS
AND YOUR CHILD’S WORLD
Make it MEANINGFUL to your
child!
Don’t assume that
First, they need to
they understand
understand words
things you haven’t
in different
explained to
situations.
them.
MORE GOALS
 Turns echoes into spontaneous speech
 Turns gestures into signs
 Turns words into phrases
 Increases the variety of communication
 Refuses/protests
 Answers questions
 Greets and says “bye”
 Shifts gaze between you and object they want
 Draws your attention to someone or something
 Comments on things
 Understands familiar words and phrases and follow simple
directions
HOW TO ACHIEVE OUR
GOALS
Use what your child likes and
their learning style
 Rote learners: Plan daily routines and play activities that
are in a particular order. Your child can memorize words
and actions (letters and numbers)
 Gestalt learners: Repeat whole chunks of what they
hear. Your child will say exactly what you say. So, say it
as they would.
 Visual Learners: add visuals (gestures, facial
expressions, videos, pictures) paired with words
 Hands-on Learners: touching/moving/pushing buttons
paired with words
LEARN: SPEECH-LANGUAGE
STRATEGIES
 Model appropriate speech and language for your child;
clear, slow and simple.
 Listen attentively get eye-to-eye.
 Repeat to the child what you think he is saying and add
vocabulary.
 Give wait time for the child to respond.
 Gain eye contact prior to giving directions.
 Use natural gestures to enhance what you are saying.
 Give a choice of answers to questions.
 Repeat, rephrase questions.
LEARN: OWN AGENDA STAGE
 Interaction with People Games!
 Make it fun to play with you!
 Eye contact/imitation/turn-taking/wait…
 Set up situations for intentional communication
 Requests
 Making Choices
 Prepare them for social interaction opportunities
 Taking turns (eye contact, sounds, gestures, stop and
go)
LEARN: REQUESTER STAGE
 Encourages sounds or actions to continue a game
 Replaces pulling and leading with gestures, pictures and
sounds/words
 Helps them request more things
 Helps them understand the meaning of words (no need
for them to talk)
 Encourages them to play games with others!
LEARN: EARLY
COMMUNICATOR STAGE
 Teach your child to take turns consistently with you and
others
 Teach your child to initiate some physical games
 Help your child increase their use of gestures, signs,
pictures, words to make requests in new situations
(open)
LEARN: PARTNER STAGE
 Help your child change the way they communicate. Add
VARIETY!
 Answer wh- questions and open-ended questions
 Talk about past, future and feelings
 Pretend
 Help your child have conversations:
 How to start and end
 How to stay on topic
 Explaining
 Asking for clarification
HELP YOUR CHILD PLAY AND
COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS

Learn to: Give your child a reason to communicate and wait patiently.

Engineer situations for your child to communicate; objects within view and out of reach.

Use people toys; bubbles, wind-up and squeeze toys, balloons-blow it up and let it go, music
boxes, jack in the box, spinning tops.

Offer things bit by bit

Give all but one

Offer least favorite things

Watch for boredom and encourage verbal communication

Do the unexpected

Keep quiet (gestures with no words)

Creative stupidity

Make things go wrong (drop something)

Pretend you don’t know where things are

Pretend something’s broken

Pretend you are “broken”
LEARN TO: HELP
YOUR CHILD
MAKE CHOICES
 Start with easy choices
 Only give 2 choices and at most 3
 At first, offer the favorite choice last
 Later, offer the favorite choice last
 Give visual cues
 Yes/ No Choices: use visuals, offer
what you know they want and what
you know they don’t want
Resources