Finding Communication… Finding your Voice

There are those who are described as non-verbal, and those who are described as non communicative. As I have mentioned before communication is a two way street. It takes a sender and a receiver. Now for those who are not viewed as “communicative” or who live in or have lived in environments where communication has been less than efficient for them the idea of communicating may be foreign. So where would we start?

One suggestion is to download the “Communication Dictionary” on www.wapadh.org. On this form you can begin to document how the environment or objects serve as vocabulary. For example, the act of bringing you the keys may mean “let’s go for a drive”. If so write that down, and then how you respond. There may be different ways your respond, write each of them down. For some individuals this is their form of communication and should be recognized, acknowledged and responded to. This information is sometimes overlooked as real communication, and at minimum can be shared with everyone on the team. When communication is difficult it is important for each of us to understand the “personal” communicative acts.

Using the environment and objects as vocabulary can be efficient but limits you to the here and now. The next step would be to begin pairing the objects with photos or line drawings, and then move onto to written words. Vocabulary using any of the symbols needs to be for more than making requests.

Identifying vocabulary is just one part of the process. Teaching to make requests with the vocabulary is common and good practice. However, to build communication you will want to move right into answering questions using the vocabulary. For example, when teaching the vocabulary word of “video” you can first teach to request a video but there is a next step “What do you watch on the TV?” This teaches not only the function of the word but it teaches the function of listening to a question and providing an answer. This is communication.

Finally, whichever symbol you are preparing for the person you support you want to model using the symbol as you talk as well. So when talking point to the symbols. Make it natural, and engaging. If you find there is a need to practice, which is likely, then do so, but be sure and let that be known, “Let’s practice talking with your pictures”.

Communication is a basic part of being human, we can foster communication or we can squash communication. Engage and build a communicative environment!!