A few weeks ago I was able to watch a webinar from Lauren Enders in regards to fun activities to jumpstart AAC learning. Last week I shared how much the need for making our lessons fun and connecting with our students resonated with me, particularly as we begin to meet with our students in person and may feel pressured to make up for lost time.
I loved many of the ideas Ender shared, and one that I cannot wait to use with Joey is to use wordless animated short videos. Although I have always loved wordless books it had never occurred to me to use wordless videos to encourage language use.
Right before the whole world shut down for the COVID-19, my daughter and Joey’s older brother were home from school so they both participated in my session with Joey. My daughter was thrilled to get to see Joey again and read the high frequency words along with him. I think Joey’s older brother may have been happier to have not joined our group of kindergarteners, but he was a huge help regardless.
I have a love/hate relationship with knock knock jokes. For the love side, they are fun, silly, occasionally clever, and a great way to joke around with young kids. I’ve even introduced them as replacement behaviors when children want to engage with a peer but don’t know how. “Want to hear a joke?” is much better than “Our teacher is stupid and ugly” or simply pushing a peer to get their attention. So I know my fair share of knock knock jokes. On the hate side, once a child tends to learn a good knock knock joke they tend to use it repeatedly, expecting you to find it funny each and every time. And then there is that developmental window before children understand why the knock knock jokes are actually funny to other people. They create their own – “knock knock, who’s there? Cow? Cow Who? Cow cat dog dance with meeeee and the CHICKEN!” And you have to laugh even though it makes no sense.
Joey turned to me, putting his eyes directly in line with mine. “Miss Ann-Bailey. Teacher” he said, smiling. While this is true, I quickly recognized the attempt to negotiate with me. My friend, it is only because I am your teacher that we are having this battle, I explained. And I’m holding firm because I know you can do it. One day you will read many books all to yourself. Right now, we are reading this book together. Now, find “IS”.
Joey and I have been working on reading predictable pattern books that are typically introduced at this time of year in kindergarten. Joey is doing well with these books, and shows an understanding of using the words and pictures to recognize unfamiliar words. It’s exciting to watch him grow in these abilities, but there are certainly challenges that arise from making sure Joey has appropriate access to leveled reading materials. 
