JUL
27
2020
ALL ARTICLES
Early Childhood AAC use - George in the sandpit
This is the third amazing learning story to share with you from a young AAC user, George*, who was on our waitlist at the time they were written. George’s Ministry of Education Speech Language Therapist worked with his Early Childhood Education provider to implement a range of low & mid-tech AAC tools to help support his communication. They used a 77 location core vocabulary board, a Big Point, a Go Talk and eventually progressed to a more comprehensive communication book with a core vocab fold out. George is now undergoing a high-tech assessment and already has such fantastic AAC skills thanks to his dedicated team who supported his AAC journey from such a young age. *name changed to maintain confidentiality. Stories and photos shared with permission from the whānau and kaiako.
*name changed to maintain confidentiality. Stories and photos shared with permission from the whānau and kaiako.
George we have had a wonderful time outside in the sun digging in the sand pit! Together we have been digging a very deep hole, for no real reason. I stopped and went inside and got your core board and using the icons on the board related these to the digging motions within the sandpit. It was great to see the smile beam across your face as we made connections by using the core board. We are still pointing to three icons in a row and then a real object. I am echoing the sentence back to you. Sometimes I repeat the noun in several short sentences so that you are hearing the word in different contexts. Each time I use the noun, in this instance “sand” you would stop look at my face and smile, which shows that you are making connections to what I am saying. All of a sudden you pointed to the icon on the core board that said “stop”. Next minute you are running inside and come out with a pen and a piece of paper. Your smile could not get any bigger! Clearly you have just had an idea. Next minute you are drawing squiggles all over the page, “see” was said so clearly! Then with lots of gesturing you place the treasure map in the hole, covered it up with sand, and with the edge of the spade you drew a “X”. With the gesturing and using the core board that has an “X” on it we spent a good fifteen minutes drawing treasure maps and burying them in the sand and making “X” on the top of each hiding spot. George continued playing in the sand pit.
Short time later George was extremely frustrated. I sat with him, and was unable to work out why he was frustrated. Then George picked up the core board, and found the confused icon. I double checked with him, and said “are you sure you are confused?” George nodded and said “yes”. We sat on the edge of the sand pit together using the core board together, I was able to understand that you had buried a treasure map and you could not find the treasure map that you had buried. George you had looked under your “X” and it was not there. So together we dug the sand in the sand pit until we found it! Much to your delight.
Perseverance by both yourself and the kaiako using the core board in this way has enabled the teaching team to work through the challenge together, rather than just giving you a cuddle to console you. George as a teaching team we are going to continue working with your core board to support you with your communication goal of developing your verbal communication skills, to be an effective communicator (korerorero), to express your feelings, to negotiate, create and retell stories, to communicate information and solve problems when playing alongside your friends (nga hoa) and teachers (kaiako). I would like to incorporate the core board more into our group times using the weather, colours and shapes on the icon strips. So you can feel more confident in contributing within our environment.
This is the third amazing learning story to share with you from a young AAC user, George*, who was on our waitlist at the time they were written. George’s Ministry of Education Speech Language Therapist worked with his Early Childhood Education provider to implement a range of low & mid-tech AAC tools to help support his communication. They used a 77 location core vocabulary board, a Big Point, a Go Talk and eventually progressed to a more comprehensive communication book with a core vocab fold out. George is now undergoing a high-tech assessment and already has such fantastic AAC skills thanks to his dedicated team who supported his AAC journey from such a young age. *name changed to maintain confidentiality. Stories and photos shared with permission from the whānau and kaiako.
*name changed to maintain confidentiality. Stories and photos shared with permission from the whānau and kaiako.
George we have had a wonderful time outside in the sun digging in the sand pit! Together we have been digging a very deep hole, for no real reason. I stopped and went inside and got your core board and using the icons on the board related these to the digging motions within the sandpit. It was great to see the smile beam across your face as we made connections by using the core board. We are still pointing to three icons in a row and then a real object. I am echoing the sentence back to you. Sometimes I repeat the noun in several short sentences so that you are hearing the word in different contexts. Each time I use the noun, in this instance “sand” you would stop look at my face and smile, which shows that you are making connections to what I am saying. All of a sudden you pointed to the icon on the core board that said “stop”. Next minute you are running inside and come out with a pen and a piece of paper. Your smile could not get any bigger! Clearly you have just had an idea. Next minute you are drawing squiggles all over the page, “see” was said so clearly! Then with lots of gesturing you place the treasure map in the hole, covered it up with sand, and with the edge of the spade you drew a “X”. With the gesturing and using the core board that has an “X” on it we spent a good fifteen minutes drawing treasure maps and burying them in the sand and making “X” on the top of each hiding spot. George continued playing in the sand pit.
Short time later George was extremely frustrated. I sat with him, and was unable to work out why he was frustrated. Then George picked up the core board, and found the confused icon. I double checked with him, and said “are you sure you are confused?” George nodded and said “yes”. We sat on the edge of the sand pit together using the core board together, I was able to understand that you had buried a treasure map and you could not find the treasure map that you had buried. George you had looked under your “X” and it was not there. So together we dug the sand in the sand pit until we found it! Much to your delight.
Perseverance by both yourself and the kaiako using the core board in this way has enabled the teaching team to work through the challenge together, rather than just giving you a cuddle to console you. George as a teaching team we are going to continue working with your core board to support you with your communication goal of developing your verbal communication skills, to be an effective communicator (korerorero), to express your feelings, to negotiate, create and retell stories, to communicate information and solve problems when playing alongside your friends (nga hoa) and teachers (kaiako). I would like to incorporate the core board more into our group times using the weather, colours and shapes on the icon strips. So you can feel more confident in contributing within our environment.
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