Authentic AAC: The Second Week

Today our conversation went like this:

Her: LOOK and pointed to my bag
Me: Sure! We can LOOK for something to PLAY or READ (modeling the words in caps and going through the bag).
Her: LOOK (pointing to her eye) verbally says “eyes.”
Me: “Yes, you LOOK with your eyes!”
Her: (smiles and touches her eye) verbally says “eyes.”
Me: Here, do you want to LOOK with your eyes to find what you want? (leaning the bag towards her.)
Her: Pulls out the “eyes” (shown in photo), verbally says “eyes” and nods her head excitedly.
Me: (feeling pretty dumb) Yep, you’re exactly right. Those are eyes.
Her: Giggles and nods her head as she puts them on her fingers.

We had referred to them by color last time we used them. I’ve never heard her say “eyes” before. It’s SO obvious in hindsight, once you have the context, but I didn’t make the connection until she pulled the eyes out of the bag. I could have missed a huge opportunity to reinforce her persistent attempts to tell me what she wanted to look for in the bag.

Fortunately, I felt like I was missing something and let her go through the bag. Fortunately, she knew I was trying to figure it out – or she was so motivated by those eyes – that she didn’t give up. Without either of those factors, it could have been a very different outcome.

Tuesday May 10th, 2016:

In an effort to give a student access to more specific language and avoid confusion and frustration, I added choices like “barbecue chips” and “pretzel sticks.”

If someone is going to the store and asks if he wants anything, I wanted him to be able to ask for exactly what he wants. (He would say “chips” or “pretzels” but not have a way to specify flavor or shape preference).

So, when he would say he wanted “chips,” I’d ask, “What kind?” And he’d respond. However, by doing that, I’ve inadvertently created a motor/language pattern where he says things like “chips barbecue chips” and “pretzels pretzel sticks.”

I don’t want him to have extra hits and more work, and I also want to make sure he’s clear to less familiar listeners.

What I *should* have done instead is to model the choices to him initially rather than asking for him to be more specific after he made the general request. (He was already able to make the request and respond with more specific information so I didn’t model choosing one or the other). I could have also varied how I asked the question with the choices (“Do you want barbecue or regular chips?”) instead of waiting for him to ask, but that gets tricky because then I’m assuming he wants chips.

To “fix” it, my plan is to bring several of the specific items and model only the specific item name without the more general term. He’s a smart guy, and I think he’ll realize and appreciate pretty quickly that he gets what he wants without the extra hits.

Wednesday May 11th, 2016:

It would be wonderful if every student was excited and engaged all the time. BUT that’s just not reality…for anyone!

In these ‪Authentic AAC‬ situations where a student is physically closing me out, there are a few things I try:

Modeling some options of things we can do that the student typically enjoys.

Pulling items out and starting to use them.

Modeling “tired,” “need sleep” or “leave me alone please” to see if the student responds.

Sit quietly and wait.

Some days, the first thing I try is “correct” based on what the student needs.

Today, I tried all four.

I was quiet for a solid 2 minutes (it sounds short, but it’s long in real conversation time) before the student, with the pillow still on his head, decided to talk to me.

Thursday May 12th, 2016:

I went into my session today with a plan: we were going to target two-word utterances.

I started strong and modeled some two word phrases (read book, play ball).

Then, my little student wanted markers. And she was dressed beautifully. And she was sitting on the carpet. And she independently said “off green” so that I would take the lid off of the green marker.

But very quickly, the lid was off of the blue….and red…and purple. My hands were busy alternating between protecting her clothes and the floor and helping when she said “off” and “help” to get the marker lids off.

So, I modeled two word utterances a whopping four times for the entire session.

Sometimes goals change. Today, I kept the floor and a cute outfit marker-free. A giggly little girl said a lot of one word utterances and one two word utterance independently.

We’ll work on two-word utterances next time. On the days when my goals don’t align with a toddler’s, I decide pretty immediately that I’m the one who has to be flexible.

We plan and toddlers giggle, and that’s just as it should be.

Friday May 13th, 2016:

This Authentic AAC moment is two parts…an update to my post earlier this week and something I could have done better.

Remember this week when I said a student had paired the general term with the more specific item and was saying both every time? It wasn’t the worst issue because most people would understand, but there’s no reason to be redundant, especially when communication is already a challenge.

I’ve had 2 sessions with him since that post. Last session, he told me to bring pretzel twists next time. 

Today, on an outing he asked for “pretzel twists” in the store…which I had left on the bus for the ride home. He had already had some baked chips. So I modeled “bus” and told him I’d give them to him as soon as we got back on the bus. He was having none of that. He verbally said “no” and then “pretzel twists pretzel twists now pretzel twists.”

As I ran out to the bus to get them, I realized I could have done better: I should have given him a choice before we went into the store.

When I handed him the pretzel twists, he held them throughout the store. Maybe sometimes it’s the security of knowing that we can have what we want whenever we want it.

He didn’t eat the pretzel twists until we got back on the bus. But he made that decision.

Thanks to all of you who are also sharing your authentic AAC moments, publicly and privately!