Well I have been quite lax in keeping up with my blog. I find after 7 hours at school, coming home and being mom, by the time I actually get to sit down and think about my day I am exhausted. I am the type of person who has a difficult time starting something and then come back to it piece by piece. I have to do it all while I am in that frame of mind because if I come back to it I will be in a different frame of mind and my writing does not flow. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it :)
On this day we talked about Communication, learned about some Augumentative and Alternative Commuication (AAC) Tools and saw how the ipod touch is such a powerful tool for communication.
Some ways to communicate are: spoken language, written language, static artwork (drawings, paintings), body language, facial expression, sign language, touch, video, animation. Communication depends on the reciever as well as the sender. The reciever must have prior knowledge of the way of communications. The three important elements of communication are: 1. there must be communication partners, 2. there must be joint attention and 3. there must be a common language.
Communication has always been difficult for me. Don't get me wrong I like to talk but I have a hard time getting to the point when I have the full attention of the people I am communicating to. I see everyone looking at me and I tend to babble. I should clarify who my communication partners are when I mostly start babbling, adults. When teaching I have thought about what points I want to get across and feel confident in talking about it. When having a conversation, especially when I have to give my opinion and I do not know my audience well and what they will think of me I forget my point and babble.
Having worked with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for two years I also have a good understanding of some of the nuances in communication. It is amazing having to take someone else's words and try to explain them to someone who has not heard them. ASL is more like making a picture of the concept that is trying to be explained rather then the word for word signing. And watching that picture from someone else and then trying to communicate that into an english sentance is very challanging as well. It really makes you think about the way you explain things and the order you explain it in. That experience has really helped me to try to become a more visual explainer about concepts I am trying to explain.
The activity we did this day was also interesting to try to problem solve on how a person who cannot communicate through talking will get their message across. It would take a lot of pre-planning and thought to communicate your wants and needs and sometimes people who are non verbal may not have the cognitive ability to organize and pre-plan which is where teachers, aides and parents need to step in and help.
When thinking about communication as part of a students IPP goals or in assessing a student for an assistive technology (AT) device you need to think about the goal of the communication. Are they just learning to communicate their basic wants and needs and build from there or are they able to handle a more dynamic way of communicating. . How predicable is the communication going to be (is it just a simple communication of a want or a need or is there going to be more of a transfer of information). It is a lot to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment