Communication Device: Teaching to say "yes"

Communication device: teaching to say “yes” 

At first only ask him questions you know he would want to respond with a “yes”. After asking him the question, you will not want to use many other words until you get him to respond to your question “do you want this?”. Using too many words could be hard for him because he will have to process all those words. Remember this when you need to correct him for choosing the wrong button/ word. If he chooses wrong physically prompt him with hand over hand to the correct button and promptly give him reinforcer. Remember to fade these prompts as quickly and as much as possible. If prompts are not faded, he could become dependent on the prompts. 

Teacher Eye Contact

Eye Contact 

Always encourage eye contact. When you say his name and he looks at you, that very moment praise him for his eye contact by saying “Good eyes” and immediately give him a reinforcer. 

If he does not make eye contact after saying his name do not keep repeating his name. Using hand over hand, raise his hand to your eye and as he follows his/your hand gets to your eye say, “good eyes” and give reinforcer. Fade your prompt as soon and as much as you can. 

If hand over hand does not work, use the reinforcer by bringing it toward your eyes, beside your eyes. 

Using the words “good eyes” will help later to promote good eye contact with objects he needs to look at as he works. You could later use the word “eyes” to prompt him to look at the object as you point to what he needs to look at. So, the words “eyes” could be your prompt. Your goal will be for him to associate the term eyes with him needing to look. 

With that said I don’t believe eye contact is solely necessary for him to understand or pay attention to what is said or even what is in his environment. I do believe there are times and in certain individuals it is a challenge for them to look at you and process what you are saying or the environment around him. 

Preparing for Transitions

 Preparing for Transitions

123 my turn: Saying 123 my turn has goals to help later.

1st goal:  Transition from one activity to the next. 

2nd goal: Help prepare him to apply himself even more when it is time to do his work and to understand there will be a break coming. 

3rd goal: Help him prepare his mind for the transition that is about to happen; hopefully it will eventually become automatic. 

Arriving to these goals might seem slow at first. You will need to teach this at table first and once he masters it at table work on this throughout the day. This should help him generalize this skill.

How to teach the first goal: Let him play with a highly preferred item and after a few minutes say “1,2,3 my tun” say this slowly to give his mind time to process. Gently take the item and exchange for high praise and/or maybe other preferred item.  

Always use reinforcer and be mindful of your timing of the reinforcer. 

Refer to reinforcers.