Introduction- The Importance of Topics for Students with Complex Communication Needs
5/17/2016 11:38 PM
Walking down the hall in the middle school between classes, I hear snippets of conversation between kids:
“Let me tell you about how I broke my arm.”
“Mr. James gave me another day on my project—he’s ‘the bomb’ .”
“Wow! That was a really great basketball game yesterday.”
“Let’s go on a hike in the Olympics and bring the dog along.”
“Can you sleep over on Friday?”
“I am so nervous about singing in the school assembly tomorrow.”
“I think he’s gonna ask her out.”
I turn the corner to enter the life skills classroom, and am struck by the difference in topics of conversation:
At one table, a paraeducator is prompting a student to tell her the date, which she writes on a schedule board.
A small group in the kitchen area is making breakfast, and the kids are choosing between juice and milk.
Another group works on separating paper and plastic from the recycling bin.
A student in the back corner is listening to music using headphones.
Topics are the “subjects” of communicative exchanges, and are the umbrella under which specific vocabulary items are used. They are the answers mom wants when she asks, “What did you do at school today?” or that teachers want when they say, “Tell me about your weekend.” At the end of this post, the two charts show examples of conversational topics and the "fringe" (activity based) vocabulary that might be used when intercting or conversing around those topics.
Often, students with multiple disabilities, including sensory impairments, are limited in the variety of topics available for interaction and communication. These limitations may be due to experiential variables, lack of incidental learning through observation or listening, social engagement issues such as autism, motor challenges, or self-regulatory problems which limit their participation. Part of our job as communication partners is to build new contexts in which the student and others are motivated to communicate. Topics are built upon mutually shared , pleasurable experiences in which the student is actively engaged. A varied array of topics can benefit the student in so many ways. There are many reasons toinclude topic expansion in our educational programs for students with complex communication needs:
· Topics provide a context in which communication can be modeled, reinforced and taught in meaningful ways.
· Topics of shared interest give a reason for communicating for non-instrumental functions (beyond requesting and protesting)—reporting, planning, commenting, describing.
· Topics help others to know and understand the student in a more equitable way.
In the other posts in this collection, strategies for expanding topics for interaction and communication will be described. I am hoping to facilitate some conversation in this collection, so please look at the end of each post for questions to help us sustain this conversation on the Topic of "Topics"--
QUESTION: Think about a student you work or live with who has complex communication needs. What topics for interaction and communication does this student currently enjoy?
This post is part of the collection
