preintentional communication

[bettybeetle]

Hi everyone,
I need help. I have a client with severe development disability
functioning mostly at the preintentional communication stage and
beginning some intentional communication.
I am a bit stuck on what to suggests to teachers and family to promote
communication. Do I suggest to maintain her skills and make them more
conisistent? (e.g. trying to get consistent response to own name and
eye contact). We're not even at the level of using assisted
communication (e.g. she can't recognise photos or partials/minitures).
I can't seem to find much evidence in the literature either... Can
anyone help? Thanks

[Leslie Rose]

I have really enjoyed using ABA with one of my  autistic clients...not to say yours is. I think it is a good idea to continue on with the same goals until they are mastered (more consistent responses) Not sure if this client can eat or enjoys certain things ( puzzles, animals) or what, but if you can pair when she does look with a reward that is meaningful, that will encourage it...sorry, I guess that seems a little obvious, but it came to mind. If you can look up ABELLS curriculum, it really breaks down all the skills we as speech paths are trying to teach into little steps. I think I spelled it right. while they are not SLP's, but verbal behaviorists ro something, it really follows good developmental guidelines. HOpe that helps!

Leslie

 

[bettybeetle]

Yeah I think you are right to try to work on things until it's more
consistent. Though I've had to change things around a bit because she
has already made improvement on her own since my first assessment
visit. So I'm thinking on building on those early communication skills
and see how that goes for a while and see whether we can try to
implement some form of AAC.
Thanks for the tip though! I know it's kind of obvious but it's good to
be reminded those kinds of things every now and then. I guess cos we're
so used to it, we kind of forget sometimes. hehe