importance of total communication at schools and structure

Havering Festival of Education March 2021

Importance of Total Communication at Schools

and structure teaching for Autistic individuals

• Zuzanna Gromska

• (Assistant Head at SEN School)

• (Teacher with higher degree in SEN)

• (Certified TEACCH Practitioner)


How do we Communicate?


Communication is the process of exchanging information. It is the way we share our knowledge, needs, wishes, and feelings.

The communication may take the

form of body movement, gestures,

facial expressions, vocalizing, use of

objects or people, pointing to

pictures, or more formal systems.

Communication


Behaviour and

Communication

Professional service

providers must

understand that all

behaviour has a

communicative function

and should not be a

"problem.“


Autism and

Communication

How do Autistic individuals communicate

and think?

Do pupils using verbal communication need

visual aids?

Autistic people ‘think in pictures’ and

have great talent in seeing every detail –

Temple Grandin


Importance of use of symbols especially

for ASD children.

Autistic people find it difficult to

understand verbal language and non-

verbal or social cues like body language,

gesture or even tone of voice. Their

understanding of the words is very

precise and they may not accept that one

word can have two or more meanings.

Depending on their abilities they can

speak or use only single words but also

can communicate using different

methods that can be also very effective.

“People are so afraid of variety that they try to

fit everything into a tiny little box with a

specific label,” Rosie King is talking about

what Autism is and why it cannot be defined.


Total Communication

Children should be provided with multiple communication approaches

including, speech, sign language, pictures and augmentative

communication methods in both home and school environments.


Teaching Effective Communication

• Teach the child to face the person he/she is communicating with.

• Teach the child to communicate wants, needs, and opinions without being aggressive or pushy.

• Teach the child to be sensitive to the messages communicated in tone of voice and body language.

• Provide opportunities for the child to communicate with different people in different environments.

• Help the child expand the functions of communication.


What methods do you know of

Total Communication? How can you help your pupils?


Behaviours and Pre-Symbolic

• Behaviours- can be physical movements, sounds, facial expressions, eye gaze that communicate a physical state (e.g., comfort, hunger, sleepy). Care-givers and professionals use these behaviors to respond to the child's needs forming the beginnings of communication.

• Pre-Symbolic-As the child moves from infancy, behaviors intensify as a means of communication. These behaviors can become unique to each child and will usually be related to how the individual child feels or be an expression about current experience. Examples are things like crying, cooing, pushing away, smiling, shaking the head, or waving.


As The Child Grows,

Communication

Changes…

• Object Cues:

• The toilet paper roll signals "Let’s go to the bathroom."

• Tangible Symbols:

• Whole object: a cup.

(Represents concept of drink)

Concrete Symbols-Pictures, drawings, objects, parts of objects, gestures or sounds can be used to communicate about a person, activity, place or thing. These symbols look like, sound like or feel like what they are meant to represent.


What is PECS?

Therefore a child can:

Request a motivating item

Respond to questions

Comment

Imitate adult responses

Social skills development: wait/ turn take/

make choices

PECS aims to develop functional communication.

The PECS process is motivating for the child and the stages are gradual so the child is nearly

always successful.


How is PECS different from other types of

visual support?

PECS is a way for the child to communicate with the

adult whereas all other visual strategies help the adult to

communicate with the child.


Other visuals, what are they?


Visuals supporting structure

Everyday examples! • Road markings and road signs to show people where to drive

• Airport queue ropes or boundaries

• Coloured lines to direct passengers towards trains

• Corona virus!


Structure needed for allHow much of structure Autistic individuals need?

- Physical organisation

- Schedules

- Work systems

- Visual/ Task structure

CLEAR

BOUNDRIES

RULES


Structure and Environment

The amount of structure required should be individualised

to meet the needs of each person.

The use of physical structure for students will help:

• To increase organisation

• To make the environment more predictable

• To visually communicate what is expected in the

environment

• To visually direct the student to an activity

• To reduce distractions and

• To reduce anxiety


Schedules and who needs them?

The aim of the schedules is:

• To show what is happening and when

• To provide predictability

• To prepare for change

• To promote independence

• To reduce anxiety

Schedules should be individualised and should be at a level easily understood by the individual.


Object, photographs,

symbols, words/ phrases

schedules..

Having checked their schedule the object/ symbol/

photograph should be matched to an area in the

classroom or school.

Functional – Object to be used in activity (e.g. Spoon

for snack) meaningful to pupil. Representational or

Symbolic (Transitional)– object that is linked to an

activity or place (e.g. Mini book library.)

Words/ phrases - having checked their schedule the

pupil should tick off the work they have finished.


What about work system?

We all create or have a sort of working system established.

It could be flagging the messages that need to be followed up by the next day or ‘to do’ tray for documents to be signed.


How can we create the work

systems for our pupils?

How to increase their

independence?

A set up of work to be done within a visually cued system that answers four questions:

• What work needs to be completed

• How much work needs to be completed

• How to finish the task

• What will happen next

Number of tasks included in a work system is dependent on the child’s tolerance.

3 key forms:

1. Layout

2. Matching visual symbols

3. Written list


More examples of structured

individual work system


Visual/ Task

Structure

Do your pupils know what to do?

How do they know it?

When is the task finished?

- Structure will encourage independence

- Structure will remind and redirect the

pupil back to the task


Answer these questions for the learner…


Questions time

importance of total communication at schools and structure

Documents