Talking Through Symbols

My Students: I've got the word on the tip of my tongue...all day, everyday. Can you imagine the frustration? What about if people are constantly trying to give things to you and its nothin...

My Project: Think of the feeling you get when you FINALLY remember the word that was on the tip of your tongue for so long. And the people around are FINALLY giving you what you want and ... more»

My Students: I've got the word on the tip of my tongue...all day, everyday. Can you imagine the frustration? What about if people are constantly trying to give things to you and its nothing you want? If only there were pictures or symbols or something I could show to people to tell them what I want and need.

My class is a self-contained life skills classroom that has a variety of disabilities. Many time there are multiple impairments such as: MR, Cerebral Palsy, autism, deaf-blind, etc. All of my students are speech impaired with varying degrees of communication.

My Project: Think of the feeling you get when you FINALLY remember the word that was on the tip of your tongue for so long. And the people around are FINALLY giving you what you want and need. YES! I got it! I would like to give my students this feeling, instead of the frustration of trying to figure out what they are needing by trial and error and even more frustration. With a laminator, laminator sheets, Velcro and cardstock to print out symbols and pictures, the students will be able to show others exactly what they need or want. It gives communication to our nonverbal students and helps retrieve vocabulary in their mind they are not able to express functional. It will give my students a voice in some cases and just activate their vocal communication in others.

What would you do if someone handed you a banana when you just needed a break? My students are faced with situations like this everyday. How easy would it be for the student to hand someone a symbol that says break? It will ease frustration, prevent melt-downs, and create the link of communication that has been broken. hide»