The Joseph Robert Shaw Foundation

Helping Children Recover from Brain Injury

Which witch?

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The last time I worked with Joey he was fairly quiet, and not as engaged as he usually is. He had just worked hard during his in home occupational therapy, and he just seemed tired. I was wondering if he was with me when he scanned the room and then gave me a disapproving look.

“What’s up?” I asked. “What book do you want to read? What will Fat Cat Sit on? or What is Chasing Duck?” (I’m on a Jan Thomas kick since Joey told me he loved funny, silly books. You don’t get sillier or funnier than Jan Thomas.

Joey looked past both books I was holding up and again scanned the area of the room behind me, obviously looking for something.

He turned back to his device. “Where a a which on?” he asked, then once again looking past me.

Where a a which on? I thought. Joey doesn’t use the question words often, so my first thought was that where and which was a mistake. Except it was so obvious he wanted something. What was it? Where a a which on?

OH! It finally hit me. Joey was asking me for the book Room on the Broom! He used where appropriately, instead of just telling me he wanted it, he was able to ask where it was. He used the wrong form of which, but I’m pretty sure the correct form isn’t on his device, and what four year old understands that there are two different versions of witch/which? When my own four year old says it she has no idea the letters it is attached to are different depending on the meaning. Joey doesn’t have the word broom, so he couldn’t say witch on broom, but he got as close as he could.

I was so proud of him, so I gave him a huge smile… and then delivered the unfortunate news. I’d taken Room on the Broom back to my house during our last session. I usually leave book kits with my students for about a month, and don’t want to add to any family’s clutter by stacking up my kits.

Joey was not impressed with my answer. Room on the Broom will be returning for our next session. Who cares if it’s December, or that we’ve already read it over 100 times?

This interaction was an excellent reminder to me that I have to continue to shift my thinking in order to determine his meaning. If I let my mind get caught on the meaning of which I may have assumed Joey was just randomly selecting words and would have moved on. It takes a moment each time to think past my initial impulse and look for meaning. I love when I find it and can let Joey know that his words have meaning we can understand.

Thinking Vocabulary and Theory of Mind

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Every time I see Joey these days he seems to have more words on his device. His vocabulary is exploding, and he spends most of his time exploring these new words. During these times it is always hard for me to track his meaning and determine if he is exploring where his words are, trying to communicate a message, or if he is unintentionally hitting the new words while seeking out the old ones. I’ve learned to sit back and listen to him and give meaning to his words when I can.

In the most recent set of words, Joey gained the ability to communicate the idea of thought with the words think, thinks, thinking, and idea. It surprised me how much deeper he was able to communicate once he could add these words to his thoughts.

Before any child can truly use these words they need to develop a theory of mind – or the ability to assign ideas, thoughts, and emotions to oneself and others. In typical development, a child’s theory of mind is developing between the ages of zero and five years old. This is often behind much of the terrible twos and three-nager behaviors. Our kids may be developing their own theory of mind, but they haven’t begun to understand that others have thoughts, feelings, and ideas different than their own.

To be honest, I had never thought much about Joey’s theory of mind, but I realize now that is because he did not have any way to tell me “I have an idea,” “I think”, or to say “I think the cat is thinking…” These words simply were not on his device yet.

I didn’t know they had been added until Joey grinned at me and said “Have idea funny”, and “wow a lot idea funny”. Suddenly Joey can tell us that he has an idea. Instead of just asking for something (His idea was to read a funny book), he can tell us what he is thinking. To do this he has to understand that he has thoughts and ideas. The concept of idea is intangible, and yet Joey was using it correctly.

Later, when I labeled a character in a book as a monster Joey gave me a look and said “think lobster”. Joey and I have a long running debate over whether the proper word for monster is monster or lobster. Now that he has the word think he can actually debate me more efficiently. Instead of “No lobster” he clearly let me know that he thinks it is lobster.

Communicating with these new words seems small, and yet, it gives Joey the chance to let us know what he is thinking. It also lets us know that Joey is thinking. He knows he is thinking and that he has ideas, and he understands that he can communicate those thoughts and ideas with us without just stating them or demanding them.

It is exciting to learn more about Joey each time he gains access to new words. I love watching this boy emerge from behind his physical limitations and show us all he is capable of.

Love for Room on the Broom (a month after Halloween is over)

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Halloween is long over, so you can file this post away from next year. My own children love the book, Room on the Broom, but when I read it with my “Is this for Joey?” eyes I realized just what a great book it is.

Room on the Broom, written by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler, is the story of a witch who is riding around on her broomstick. As the wind picks up her hat, bow, and wand, are blown away. Each time she goes to look for an item she meets a new friend (a dog, a bird, and a frog), each who asks her if there is room on the broom for one more friend. Eventually the broom becomes so full that it breaks, and the witch falls next to a dragon who wants to eat her. Before he can, the friends she made room for ban together to save her. On the surface level it’s a great story about inclusion and friendship. But let’s look beyond that.

Prepositions: Room on the Broom is perfect for working on prepositions, because the witches’ movements are repeated. Each time the witch flies over the field, says “down” or “up”, I can include Joey’s AAC device. At first I modeled these words on the AAC device as I read, but after awhile I was able to pause and wait for Joey to fill in the down, up, or over word. These actions are also easy to act out, so you can fly a broom or a witch up and down to create a real life model of the preposition.

Weather: While it is easy to find books specifically about weather, we don’t always find opportunities to talk about weather in regular (fun and engaging) read alouds. When I’ve read this book to my own children, the weather seemed like a back story we barely commented on. Yet Joey started pointing out the weather changes to me the first time we read the story. Of course! How did I not see it before? The witch’s difficulties are all because of the coming storm. Joey has weather words on his device, and it is rare that we can use these words outside of the calendar routine. Not only can we label the weather here, but Joey can explain why the witch’s hat fell off – the wind blew it down. Suddenly, these static weather words have become a part of the plot line, and he can meaningfully use them to discuss the story.

Early Math Routines: This book is also excellent for supporting one to one correspondence when counting. There are five main characters (the witch, cat, dog, frog, and bird). Five is a great base number to count and use for number stories. On a simple level, we can count one through five. We can practice the “add one more” concept by starting to count the witch and the count, and then add on each additional animal. “Now we have three!” “Now we have four!”

The math concept I like the most here is that we can practice matching one to one. Five friends each need five seats, and each needs to put one item into the witch’s cauldron. Matching up the five friends, five items, and five seats reinforces to children that counting represents a set number of objects. Initially, some children are able to count but unable to match the memorized count “1, 2, 3” to three items. This book gives an easy, meaningful opportunity to match set amounts with other set amounts. This also helps reinforce the concept of equal and same. So much math!

Top Five Tips for Choosing Picture Books to Maximize Engagement

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I had the opportunity to present research on using engaging reading aloud to promote language and symbolic play at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Early Childhood Conference this October. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other educators and hear about the current research in the field, particularly in the area of storybook reading.

While talking to participants during our poster presentation, I realized how many teachers and therapists are looking for ideas on how to adapt books to use with students with unique needs. I am taking a step back here in this blog to talk about the whys and hows of adapting books to create engaging read aloud experiences for children like Joey who are using Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

If we are going to spend time adapting and reading a book with our kids, we first need to make sure we are choosing quality, engaging books that meet the needs of our learners.

Here are my top five recommendations for choosing books to create engaging read aloud:

  1. Choose Engaging Books. Consider the child’s interests as well as the child’s developmental and language level.
  2. Choose books with an appropriate language level for the child. While a child may love books with things that go, he may not be engaged by Go Dogs Go, which can be lengthy, or a book like Otis, which has many words on each page. If a child loves the pictures of a particular book, but loses interest as you read the words, keep in mind that you do not have to read the words on the page. Engage through labeling the pictures, putting the story into your own words, or creating playful exchanges based on the pictures. If a character is eating ice cream you can pretend to eat ice cream too.
  3. Find books with repetitive phrases.  Repetitive phrases allow the child to participate in the reading, either orally, using an AAC device, or by shaking a musical instrument as you read the phrase.
  4. Look for books with the child’s core words. Read aloud give you a wonderful opportunity to model using the AAC device to communicate with core words, whether the words are in the book (“The bear wants more”) or can be supported in talking about the story. You can use the core words to talk about what is going on in the story. In Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, it is easy to model the core words of Stop and GO, by adding the lines “Stop Pete!” And “Go Pete” to the story as he walks through piles of fruit and mud.
  5. Provide Choice: Students may surprise us with which books they find engaging, and which they do not. While I like to think I can predict what books Joey will like, he often surprises me. Giving Joey an option of what books to read allows him to have a choice in the read aloud experience, and promotes his engagement.

Turning the Tables

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In my ongoing work with Joey I’ve learned that he doesn’t like to be prompted to use particular words. If I prompt him to use want, he’ll use every word BUT want, or will refuse to talk to me. It’s taken me awhile, but I’ve eventually learned to use more naturalistic methods and to accept Joey’s total communication, instead of demanding him to use the words I choose.

 

So I was amused the other day when I asked Joey to give me a picture card he was holding. “Can I have it?” I asked. He pulled it away. I assumed it was unintentional, because he often has difficulty with his motor planning. Yet then he turned to his screen and highlighted the word give.

“Can you give me the card?” I asked.

He smiled and immediately gave me the card.

My friend was prompting me to use a particular word. He didn’t give me what I wanted until said give, which he first had to model for me to use.

Touche, my friend.

Let me tell you, it didn’t feel so great to be forced to use a certain word when what I’d said meant the same thing.

Joey may have just been connecting the core word give with my demand, but it sure felt like I was being prompted to change my language.

 

Saturday Serenade

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Test post for Saturday Serenades https://www.musichealsglennjan.com/saturday-serenades

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