The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

From visual supports to high-tech AAC systems, this session will discuss how AAC can provide needed opportunities for students to communicate their frustrations and anxieties, and provide informative feedback to their instructors. In addition, techniques and ideas will be discussed that help professionals and parents use appropriate communication models and AAC techniques to decrease disruptive behavior and increase cognitive engagement in learning. A range of practical support ideas for integrating ABA techniques, Floortime and AAC instruction will be included. Meltdowns can be a part of the daily routine when you have a child with autism in your classroom or home. Understanding why that behavior has occurred and how to prevent behaviors through teaching techniques and strategies can be a lifesaver in classrooms. Using that knowledge and AAC techniques can provide a powerful tool to mediate and regulate behaviors. Often the use of support symbols in these situations can help calm the behavior, reduce anxieties and create the opportunity for students to learn. Several techniques and ideas will be discussed that help professionals and parents use appropriate communication models and AAC techniques to decrease disruptive behavior and increase cognitive engagement in learning. Making Language Visible Making Language Visible ( King-DeBaun, 1997) simplified the concept of aided language stimulation Goossens, 1992. (A technique where facilitators speak to children and point to symbols as if the symbols were a part of their communication.) Routine activities are made visible for students. Such activities might include morning meeting or circle time, snack time, song activities, the lunch routine, and closing routine. These techniques have proven to be beneficial in enhancing the development of both verbal and nonverbal communication and receptive language. The dilemma however is that these methods have also been difficult for people not familiar with teaching AAC to implement. The concept of making language visible evolved out of the need to train paraprofessional staff and teacher who were less familiar with teaching AAC with a method that was manageable and doable in the classroom. The method is similar to Goossens's techniques described above, however fewer symbols are used to negotiate activities. Rather than there commended 16 or 36 symbols only 4-6 core conversational symbols are used. This concept enhances the conversation with symbol support rather than a word by word transcription that is often used with the larger displays. This allows the teacher to use a more natural conversational flow. In clinical practice within classrooms we have found that this system is easier to use by all instructors in the classroom and less overwhelming. Every Child Communicates! The ongoing debate of how to teach and integrate ABA and/or other behavior techniques and ACC methods and if the systems collide will be addressed. Too many children are left without a communication system because of misinformation and /or simply not understanding or knowing what to do. AAC instruction and training for children with autism has traditionally utilized a non-interactive, stimulus-response training methodology (Buekelman & Mirenda, 1992; Goossens', Crain & Elders, 1992). Beukelman et al. (1992) have proposed that the ineffective use of AAC by users is the result of limited opportunities for learning within a natural and functional context. By viewing communication as a behavior all programs can coexist. The concept that every child has a communication system ( light or high tech) will be discussed and the understanding that the integration of behavior strategies and concept development can continue while the child is communicating. Communication can coexist and in fact become a seamless part of the students' day. Teaching Behavior Regulation Too often the starting place for communication is limited by requests of items only and not the full ability to communicate thoughts. Giving children words to attach to what they are feeling is very helpful in maintaining appropriate regulation. Children cannot learn unless they are in a regulated state which means they are calm, focused and affectively engaged with the activity at hand. Emotions can be quite deregulating for many children as they feel the emotion as internal tension, but are unable to connect that up with words or a plan of what to do to relieve the tension. Giving words to what a child is feeling can be quite regulating and a more effective "behavioral strategy" than a "time out" or negative consequence. We ultimately want the child to be able to reregulate - working them through the emotional regulation piece will help them do this more independently in the future. Careful Design of AAC systems In the words of Stanley Greenspan M.D. and Serena Wieder PhD., children need to open and close many circles of communication. These circles can be gestural and/or verbal in nature. For example, when you offer a child a toy you are opening a circle and when they take it they are closing the circle. When you say, "Come in!" you are opening a circle and when the child brings their character in, the child is closing the circle. It is the opening and closing of these circles( turn taking) that will build the interactive practice needed to support communication. Many children won't attempt many circles because they are unable to plan what to do next. If we systematically limit their options, yet maintain both high affect choices and choices that are very visually obvious, often these same children will open and close many circles in a row. They are more able to stay in the flow of the play and maintain their interest and affective engagement for longer periods of time. How you organize and present communication symbols to students can play a key roll in their success. Communication has to be meaningful, quick and highly interactive to be effective with children who have autism spectrum disorders. Teachers and/or people within the child's learning environment need to be responsive the child's communication in order for the children to understand how to use it. The selection of both light and high tech systems as well as methods to design those systems will be discussed. Decades of professionals have been challenged to find a way into the world of children with autism in order to teach them needed skills. It has been estimated that 50% of children with autism will not develop enough speech for functional communication (Romski & Sevcik, 1996). For them, Augmentative and Alternative Communication

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