As a high school student, I worked with a thirteen-year-old boy named Ricky as a sign language tutor. Ricky had autism and did not acquire speech other than the word “ma”. A high population of children with autism does not acquire speech, and intervention is needed. Other methods of intervention exist, but teaching signs is one of the most useful ways of giving nonverbal children the power of communication. Although researchers often seek to solve problems, I approach this topic from the perspective of a teacher. Teachers must grapple with educating a higher percentage of children with communicative challenges due to a growing diagnosis of autism. Special education policy must work to support the needs of these students while giving teachers opportunities to practice appropriate interventions. The success of sign language instruction will vary among children, but invested parents and teachers may be able to help a child realize his or her communicative potential.
Communicative Difficulties in Children with Autism
Communication is the sending and receiving of information. It is the “interactive exchange of information, ideas, feelings, needs, and desires” (Heward, 2009, p.297). The act of communication allows us to understand relationships between people, things, and actions. Types of communication include spontaneous requests, spontaneous comments, responsive requests, responsive comments, and imitation (Bondy & Frost, 2002). Receptive communication occurs when incoming information is interpreted, while expressive communication occurs when an individual conveys information (Heward, 2009). Communication requires a sender and a receiver of information. Thus, as humans, communication allows us to relate to our peers. We can express o...
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The documentary “For a Deaf Son,” delineates a young boy, Thomas Tranchin, who was born deaf into a hearing family, and the battle his parents endured to decide to teach Thomas in sign language communication, strictly communicate in English, or both. The documentary is educational for the hearing world to shape their own particular opinions on what type of technique would be better for their child in the event that they were to ever be in a comparative circumstance. As Dr. Carlos Erting expressed in the film, 93% of hearing impaired children have hearing parents; therefore, this documentary gives a glimpse at both perspectives of nonverbal communication and oral communication. However, as I viewed the short film, the clashing feelings of Thomas’
...at sign language was a last resort if the child did not pick up lip reading and oral communication. Thomas now met someone who signed and spoke and realized that signing is a language in its own and its importance to people who could not hear the oral language. This began their quest to learn sign language and use it with Lynn despite the school and public opinion.
Autism: A Lack of the I-function In the words of Uta Frith, a proclaimed expert on autism, autistic persons lack the underpinning "special feature of the human mind: the ability to reflect on itself." ((3)) And according to our recent discussions in class, the ability to reflect on one's internal state is the job of a specific entity in the brain known as the I-function. Could it be that autism is a disease of this part of the mind, a damage or destruction to these specialized groups of neurons which make up the process we perceive as conscious thought? And if this is so, what are the implications?
Mark Drolsbaugh, a Deaf guidance counselor for the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and author of the book Madness in the Mainstream, presented on Thursday, February 25 at McDaniel College. Deaf events, such as the lecture by Mark, occur around two to three times a semester. The American Sign Language (ASL) Department of McDaniel College hosts these events. The topic of the presentation that night was about the disputes of education with deaf children attending mainstream schools and was subsequently titled “Madness in the Mainstream”. Mark starts by discussing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and how it guarantees equal education for all. Consequently, children who are
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The implementation of an appropriate alternative and augmentative communication device will improve Marvie’s communication abilities by broadening her communication partners. Marvie’s communication is limited to familiar people because she is unintelligible to strangers. It is necessary to include Marvie’s family, peers, and educators to improve her overall communication skills. Communication is the fundamental bridge linking patients and caregivers, however; cerebral palsy sometimes disturbs a child’s ability to process, understand and respond in traditional ways. Speech and language therapy repairs the disconnect in poor communication, helping patients express their needs more clearly and easing pressure experienced by parents, teachers
One of the most difficult things teachers will face when dealing with Autistic children is their lack of communication skills and inappropriate or nonexistent social skills. In addition to academic instruction children with Autism require instruction in communication techniques and social skills. Kamps et.al. says “A key to accommodating students with autism in public school settings is the provision of social and behavioral programming to develop meaningful participation with nondisabled persons” (p.174).
153). The independent variable of the study was to execute the first as well as the second phase of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) which is characteristically applied through education of both communicative initiation as well as maintenance skills (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). The dependent variables were to measure how many correct response levels were recorded in the independent communicative initiation as well as maintenance skills found in the children instructed in the study along with the acquisition levels of the observational learning of the autistic participants who were not included in the initial execution part of this study (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). The experimental procedure was performed in the setting of a group-teaching classroom which the third author authorized in the university unit which included a classroom size of 6 x 5 meters that contained a cabinet that was complete with tools and equipment needed for the experiment along with one wallboard as well as one smart board with the inclusion of the necessary amount of desks and chairs for the children to sit in while the baseline, intervention and maintenance sessions were conducted (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). At the same time, the generalization sessions were being implemented by other implementers in the cafeteria that resided in the unit building and play-room (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). Coupled with the setting, the materials which included the following were placed in the room: toy or food reinforcers, one file, some 3x3 cm picture cards, one camera with its tripod and the necessary data collection forms to record reliable data from the
For more than 12 years, Jan has provided extraordinary services and leadership to English-learner children with special needs and their families. She is highly knowledgeable about laws, policies, and procedures pertaining to Special Education and the optimum practice with bilingual and monolingual families. She stands firm on her desire to work with families in search of the best educational and life skills options regardless of their knowledge of the English language, and she has done so through her work with three programs: Preschool GRASP, Infant Circle, and Reach Autism. Through Preschool GRASP, Jan works with English and Spanish-speaking staff to support the simultaneous development of young children’s primary language as well as English language acquisition. Infant Circle offers the opportunity to provide early intervention services for infants
In fact, the graph compared the baseline to the post-training assessment, observational learning assessment, full probe and maintenance sessions (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). In addition, on the graph, the circle signified training sessions while an X denoted observational learning sessions (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). The results of the study showed that with 100% accuracy that the observer autistic children increased independent communicative initiation and maintenance skills while the same skills were being taught during the first and second phases of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to the partner autistic children (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). At the end of the research, the results indicated that the pairs learned independent communicative initiation and maintenance skills that were also taught to the observational partner with a 100% accuracy rate (Odluyurt, Aldemir & Kapan, 2016). Comparatively, Deniz completed a total of nine sessions with six in the first phase and six in the second phase of the study, Huseyin completed a total of ten sessions with seven sessions in the first phase and three sessions in the second phase, and Kerim completed a total of eleven sessions with the first phase completed in seven