This weblog is intended to be a practice exercise in the EDM 510 course at the University of South Alabama.
Fostering language in a nearly nonverbal classroom...
I am a special education teacher in a self-contained preschool classroom that serves three year old's with various learning and developmental disabilities. Most of my students are nonverbal. The verbal students in my classroom are just beginning to use language to express their wants and needs. The verbal students in my classroom also tend to repeat much of what is said to or asked of them. I am looking for suggestions (i.e. games, activities, teaching strategies) on how to increase the language usage of all of the students in my classroom as I feel that they are all capable of making strides towards using language to express wants and needs. I am open to any and all suggestions. Thank you all in advance for you help!
Sadie, I think a good idea is a show and tell project. Maybe each child can take turns bringing a toy or item that is special to them to them classroom. The student can stand with the item in the front of the classroom. The parent can write why the toy is special to the child and you can read it to the class. Maybe you can model simple questions to ask about the toy with your para. This at least gets the student familiar with being the center of attention. (which can be scary!)
ReplyDeleteBailey, thank you for sharing your idea! This is definitely something I could incorporate in my classroom and I do think it would help with more than just language and speech. How fun!
DeleteI think that both of you have some great ideas. One idea could be a sight word folder. In the folder you can have pictures of a sun, run, bat, cat, can, etc... and you can have the words with velcro attached. The students can attach the word to the picture and say the word as they attach them. This will help with sight word recognition and speech. Hope you can try this.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sara. We do use picture cards in the classroom to work on language. This is for sure helping.
DeleteHi there! I am a Speech Therapist and I have several students who are nonverbal. Each student will learn and progress differently but what I have found that works for my students is simply talking to them constantly. Also, "make" them talk. What I mean by that is instead of allowing the student to point and grunt, say something on the lines of "use your words" or "do you want the crayon?"Be persistent even if it seems like it is not working. Remember that they are only three years old and this may be their first time in a classroom setting around any other children their age. The more you work with them, the more they will begin to talk. This has worked for several of my students and now we can barely get them to stop talking. :-) I hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteThank you JacQuessa! We are working on these things, but it is always good to be reminded to just be persistent and consistent with it.
DeleteSadie, I found a really useful article on ways to help non-verbal children learn to speak. The site is geared towards autisim, but I think most of the ideas could work for various disabilites. The website is: https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2013/03/19/seven-ways-help-your-nonverbal-child-speak
ReplyDeleteBasically the website suggests using: play and social interactions, imitate the child's sounds, focus on nonverbal communication, give the child plenty of opportunites to speak, simplify the language that you are modeling, model language through the child's interests, and use assistive technology. I have never heard or thought about imitating the child's sounds and fount this very interesting. The article states that this will help the child feel more confident and incourage interaction. When I get my own special education class, I will try to use these methods to help foster language in my students. I hope this helps!
Alyssa, thank you for the link! What great information. I am for sure going to print that out to keep on hand.
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