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HeatherWithrow
12/24/2015 3:57 PM
As a parent, I believe the Communication Matrix is a great set of lens for us to look through at our children. It helps us recognize and explain to our community about our children’s ‘voices’ or ‘touch”, that many people probably never realized or appreciated were meaningful communication.
On conventional questionnaires and intake forms, when we parents are barely able to check off a box whether our child can do something, say something, it feels like our kids are doing poorly. We can be so hard on ourselves already and this doesn’t help. When Orion was a wee infant, and I’d already met and processed internal thoughts about those standard forms, I silently told myself that these weren’t designed with my son in mind and he is doing well for his circumstances. Society in general seemed to have put, “language”, on an “only" pedestal. There’s a whole ‘nother way around this because communication happens on every level. I am thankful for the examples of communication you’d see in the Communication Matrix questionnaire, I’m thankful to be able to check off more of these boxes and see we can look forward to, something on the horizon that my child and I can realistically aim for.
I used to say my son was “non-verbal, while on the videophone talking with medical professionals or with the staff in the emergency room or urgent care when they ask questions about him and his complaint. Non-verbal already felt so wrong to me during that time and as I learned of more DeafBlind resources and the different levels and purposes of communication, I found it! Orion’s signing vocabulary is spontaneous and still countable on our fingers, but I’ve been saying Orion is an emerging and unconventional communicator. With Orion grabbing and moving our hands, signing when he feels like it, sitting up to grab our shirt, fussing, moving our hands under his armpits to pick him up, giggling and touching our hands for more, trying to walk in a different direction than the one we were going in, there’s a lot of communication going on.
You can give the Communication Matrix questionnaire a try, whether you're a parent, intervener, or education professional. Test Drive the Matrix at https://www.communicationmatrix.org/TestDrive.aspx
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Off on a tangent here, I enjoyed playing the "Lode Runner" game back when desktop computers had black screens and green or white text and graphics and you could save files on a floppy disk. Here are the Seven Levels of Communication, Lode Runner style!
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Dear Ms. Withrow,
It is so great to hear these kinds of responses from parents. I'm glad that the Communication Matrix can help give a better scope on your child's level of language. Language is a multi-tiered modality. Love the Lode Runner picture by the way. I too have played Lode Runner myself back in the day. Looking forward to seeing more of your posts.
Graduate Student,
Kent M.
rockman20xx - 1/13/2016
0 likes0 replies
Thanks for your responses, Heather. This is the first time I've ever had a conversation on this site. I was able to make a link to the Emotional Glue article. See if it works...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8vW6YnM2iP-ZUFGTV9XMzZLNFFpLXFvSU1CelE1YmZKaU9F/view?usp=sharing
Now I'm going to watch the video of eating and talking!
Linda Hagood - 1/3/2016
1 likes3 replies
There is also an old old article I wrote with Kate Moss (now Hurst) called "Conversations without Language"--describes ways to extend the interaction and build prelinguistic content within the framework of turntaking interactions. Though it's old, people still tell me it helps. It was about deafblind kids. If you send me an email, I can send you both of these articles. VanDijk refers to this "stuff" as "IT", and if you ever get a chance to see him work with a child, live or on video, you will see that he definitely has "it". I see "it" in the videotaped interactions with your son which you have shared.
.
Linda Hagood - 12/31/2015
Thanks! I'd love to send you an e-mail but I don't see a way to do a private message here. Hmm.
I googled and found 'Conversations Without Language', here is the link for others to enjoy: http://www.tsbvi.edu/seehear/archive/conversation....
Dr. Van Dijk gave me a lot of food for thought in his Perkins Webcasts, too, especially when Orion was a wee infant. To share with our friends here, here's a link to one of his webcasts titled, "The Role of the Emotional Brain": http://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webcast/rol...
HeatherWithrow - 1/1/2016
Trying the webcast link again: http://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webcast/role-emotional-brain
HeatherWithrow - 1/1/2016
Link didn't work... copy and paste in the search bar of the browser. It'll work!
HeatherWithrow - 1/1/2016
1 likes1 replies
Heather,
Funny you should mention "glue" because I wrote an appendix to a book that Millie Smith wrote called "Symbols and Meaning," in which I called this other stuff "Emotional Glue", and described it as the stuff that "makes meaning stick." It includes engagement, attachment, emotional co-regulation/ self-regulation, shared reference, joint attention. These things seem kind of unmeasurable, but really, it isn't so hard to objectify them and put them in an IEP. Thanks for your response. You help so many with your shared experiences with your son.
Linda Hagood - 12/31/2015
Yes, glue is it! Wonderful. I'm a big believer of emotions making things stick, too. Saw wonderful presentations by Gunnar Vege (and Bernadette van den Tillaart) about Bodily Emotional Traces when he visited Austin for two DeafBlind Symposiums 2 years apart. Even my oldest boy watched the video with me and couldn't wait to do the crab crawling activity (as seen with Ingerid) with Orion. We have yet to do that but this coming summer is looking good for that as we go visit our roots in WA every summer, just like the salmon do. Many thanks for your comment.
HeatherWithrow - 1/1/2016
1 likes1 replies
I definitely appreciate the Communication Matrix for its inclusion of varied communicative forms (both symbolic and nonsymbolic, intentional and nonintentional), and use of these forms in evaluating progress in our students. That said, I find it most useful as an evaluation instrument, rather than as a curriculum. The things you are saying about feeling, connection, quality of interactions, variety of communicative functions (not just to ask for things, but to share pleasure, maintain physical proximity, to initiate and respond, frequency of engagement)--these are all such important aspects of communication, and I think that the Communication Matrix, as an evaluation and research tool, focuses so much more on the form and content--doesn't give kids much credit for using the same prelinguistic forms more often, in more contexts, with more partners, for more turns. I am happy to have prelinguistic communicative forms acknowledged and developmentally sequenced--I see the Matrix doing this in a unique and objective way. The teaching part, though, and the actual goals, might include important teaching strategies such as "Find the Smile" (yours AND his), "Build Staying Power,: "Co-regulate", "Accept (and later seek) adult support in approaching a challenging or new situation." HeatherWithrow, these are the wonderful interactive components of the videos I have seen of your son with his dad and with you--thanks so much for sharing, because I have used these videos in workshops to help teach others how to focus more on interactive skills, topics, partners and functions and less on the forms that are used for communication. They have been incredibly well received.
Linda Hagood - 12/28/2015
Linda, thank you! I'm glad you found the videos enjoyable and enlightening.
Good point about the Communication Matrix being focused on the form and content. That is true. It's also great guidance for IEP teams who feel stuck or feel like they are reinventing the wheel while writing goals. The Communication Matrix gives the team some traction in planning and encouraging their child/student's progress. What do you call the other very important aspects? Presence of Mind, the artistic medium, the glue that binds us all? That's what comes to mind. (Definitely not the ol' magic 8 ball!)
::H
HeatherWithrow - 12/29/2015
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The only way I know that he wants something is because he fusses or whines when he's unhappy or uncomfortable, and he smiles, makes noises or calms down when he's happy and comfortable. Does this statement describe your child?
She doesn't come to me to let me know what she wants, but it's easy for me to figure out, because she tries to do things for herself. She knows what she wants, and her behavior shows me what she wants. If she runs out of something to eat, she will just try to get more, rather than trying to get me to give her more.
Does this statement describe your child?
He knows how to get me to do something for him. He uses some of the kinds of behaviors below to communicate:
Does this statement describe your child?
Each question you will see is related to a certain message that your child might be able to express using a variety of behaviors. Read the question and decide whether your child is able to express the message described using any of the listed behaviors. If the answer is YES, then you must also decide whether your child has mastered the use of each behavior or whether it is still at an emerging stage. Check either the mastered or emerging box next to any behaviors your child uses to express the message. Use the following definitions to decide whether a behavior is mastered or emerging
– Does this independently most of the time when the opportunity arises
– Does this in a number of di erent contexts, and with di erent people
– Does this inconsistently
–
Only does this when prompted or encouraged to do so. Only does this in one or two contexts or with one person.
Each question you will see is related to a certain message that your child might be able to express using a variety of behaviors. Read the question and decide whether your child is able to express the message described using any of the listed behaviors. If the answer is YES, then you must also decide whether your child has mastered the use of each behavior or whether it is still at an emerging stage. Check either the mastered or emerging box next to any behaviors your child uses to express the message. Use the following definitions to decide whether a behavior is mastered or emerging
Thanks, Kent!
HeatherWithrow - 1/15/2016