| Goals Targeted: | Functional Communication Activities: | Target Age: |
|---|---|---|
| Functional communication, requesting, commenting | Functional Communication | All ages |
| In order to support functional communication, sabotage the environment by putting preferred objects out of reach so that your child must initiate communication with a request. If your child needs help getting started, provide sentence starters (I want, I like, I see a, etc.) and/or question starters (i.e. who, what, when, where, why. You can also create photo menus and hang them on the fridge so that your child may request any favorite snacks or drinks. Other photo menus of preferred objects can be used for requesting: favorite TV show, favorite game or toy, kitchen utensils, bathroom necessities (i.e. toothbrush, towel, hairbrush, etc.). Include common comment or question starters (I like, you have, do you want?) and refer to them while communicating with your child. | ||
| Functional communication, requesting, commenting | Functional Life Skills | Upper middle and high school |
| Encourage your child to practice activities of daily living or necessary life skills that will help them to be successful following high school. These activities include: washing dishes or loading/unloading the dishwasher, cooking pasta or other simple meals, changing a tire, writing checks, etc. Have students identify/retell the steps involved and practice following complex directions. Address any problem-solving opportunities that arise along the way and discuss solutions together. Additionally, practice describing and comparing/contrasting with everyday objects, such as cash vs. debit cards vs. credit cards. | ||
| Daily skills, vocabulary, sequencing, following directions, describing and explaining, sentence formulation | Prepping for new chore/task/activity | Functional ability level |
| Choose an activity/task/chore new to your child. With your help, your child can draw the steps to carry out the task before having to actually do the task. First, get something to draw or write on (writing paper, construction paper, board, etc.). Second, fold paper (or draw boxes) based on how many steps to this new task. Next, together, talk about what needs to be done first, second, next, etc. Your child then draws the picture and/or writes the step. Then, when done with pictures with all steps, have your child describe each step. You can encourage your child to say/imitate sequence words, such as first, second, next, then, last, finally, etc., when describing steps. Finally, do the task/chore/activity together. Use the pictures if your child forgets what to do or misses a step. | ||
| Daily life skills, sorting, vocabulary, describing, same and different, things that go together | Sorting/Categories | All ages |
| Sorting activities teach vocabulary (words), how things are the same/different, describing words, etc. Sorting can be done with most things in the home. When doing laundry, your child can sort according to type of clothing (all pants in one pile, all shirts in another, etc.), color, texture (soft clothes in one pile, rougher clothes in another, etc.), and where items belong in the house (bath towels, washcloths in the bathroom, shirts, pants in the bedroom, etc.). Meal times, child can sort utensils, dishes, fruits, vegetables, sweet, salty, etc. Game/show time, child can sort by fun, scary, exciting, boring, etc., games or shows. Child can sort things in the house by how it looks (e.g. small, big, long, scary, pretty), feels (e.g. hot, cold, rough, smooth, heavy, light), sounds (loud, quiet), where you can find in house, what it’s used for, etc. | ||
| Functional communication, requesting, commenting | Experience Journal | All ages |
| You will need a composition notebook or a binder for this activity. Document an activity/experience on a daily basis by either taking a picture of your child engaging in the activity/draw a picture of the activity/use an item that represents activity (chips bag, straw, leaves etc.). Describe what happened (child or adult) and explain your child’s experience/child explains his experience. Include how the activity made him/her feel. Encourage your child to share the journal entry with other members of the family. | ||
| Functional communication; identifying/understanding feeling/emotions; answering/asking questions; vocabulary, sorting and categories, same and different | Feelings/Emotions | All ages |
| Make different emotion faces and have children guess what you might be feeling. | ||
| Throughout the day, help children learn to label their own emotions (i.e. It looks like you are feeling mad that we can't go outside; what can we do to help you feel better?) | ||
| While reading stories to children, have children guess how the characters in the story are feeling. Ask questions like “How can you tell that the character is feeling that way? Can you make a face that shows that feeling? | ||
| During mealtime, tell children about a situation that makes you feel a particular emotion (e.g. happy, sad, frustrated, angry jealous, etc.). Then ask children to share the things that make them feel that same emotion. | ||
| Play an emotion guessing game. Take a piece of paper or small blanket and hold it in front of your face. Slowly lower it down to reveal your face showing an emotion. Children guess the emotion you are feeling, and then allow everyone to show their face with the same emotion. Then talk about what might make you feel this way. | ||
| Art Activities: | ||
| Draw faces and label emotions. | ||
| Choose a feeling such as happy, mad, sad, surprised etc., draw pictures of a time they felt that way, share their stories. | ||
| Sorting: | ||
| Put all the happy pictures in one basket, sad in another, etc. | ||
| Sort things by how they make you feel. Example: my book makes me happy, eating brussel sprouts makes me feel disgusted, this movie makes me feel bored, my broken toy makes me sad, and finishing this assignment makes me feel proud, putting together this puzzle makes me feel excited. | ||
| Functional communication- requesting and commenting | Expression Pictures | Functional communication-all ages |
| Think of common/familiar expressions that your child needs to use while at home (IE. I need to pee, I’m hungry, I want to play outside, etc.). For each expression take a sheet of paper and draw a picture that relates to the expression or if you have access to a computer and printer, find images relating to the expressions. Once done drawing/printing, write the expression below the pictures and place dots/circles below each word. Hang the pictures in the appropriate areas in your house where the child will need to use the expression to communicate his/her wants or needs (IE. Bathroom picture outside the bathroom door). During the appropriate times assist your child with using the expressions by touching the dots below each word. If they are not able to verbalize the words, they can touch the dots while you verbalize it for them. If they are verbal they can touch the dots while saying the expression. Once done using the expression they can do or get what they requested for. Encourage them to always use the expressions before getting what they are requesting what they want or need to do. | ||
| Goals Targeted: | Functional Communication Websites: | Target Age: |
| Communication AAC: Use of a Speech Generated Device. Incorporating the device into everyday learning and communication | www.assistiveware.com | All Ages |
| Communication | www.do2learn.com | All Ages |
| Do2learn provides thousands of free pages with social skills and behavioral regulation activities and guidance, learning songs and games, communication cards, academic material, and transition guides for employment and life skills. In addition, we offer premier products including View2do, JobTIPS, and books for purchase | ||
| Significant communication difficulties | praacticalaac.org | All Ages |
| PrAACtical AAC supports a community of professionals and families who are determined to improve the communication and literacy abilities of people with significant communication difficulties. | ||
| Receptive/Expressive Language Development for students with limited verbal skills and/or severe disabilities (autism/down-syndrome) | http://www.gemini.org | 3 and above |
| free trial for 7 days | ||
| Social skills/language | https://www.encourageplay.com | 3 and above |
| Functional communication | https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/functional-communication/ | All ages |
| Goals Targeted: | Free Functional Communication Apps for devices: | Target Age: |
| Functional Communication | Otismo- Special Education AAC | 4+ |
| *FREE for the month of April* |
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