Language Facilitation and Expansion Techniques Flashcards
general tips
- respond to all bids for attention and connection, and all forms of communication
- take into consideration sensory needs
- don’t misinterpret behaviors as intentional (e.g. “stubborn”, “bad”, etc.)
- provide choices
focus on child’s interests and preferences
gradually expand to facilitate social interactions
be a careful observer
- regulation vs. dysregulation
- attention and engagement
model and provide cues for imitation
- tell me, say, you try/your turn
- model again if they don’t imitate
language targets should serve a purpose beyond just requesting
- pragmatics: words, phrases that help the child establish and maintain JA
- consider typical developmental sequence of word classes
consider function as well as form when you’re choosing targets
- early developing consonants
- shorter words
- easy to depict, demonstrate visualize
3 ingredients for teaching first words
- joint engagement
- noun
- gesture
joint engagement
- follow the child’s lead by sharing interest in the objects they are looking at, interacting with, or communicating about
- this connects the language input to the child’s focus of attention
- we know that language either directly related to the child’s focus or in response to their communication prompts their language development
noun
- label the objects the child is interested in
- since we know that the children’s 1st words are most often names for things, modeling nouns support their early vocabulary
- saying nouns by themselves or in simple statements that label or describe the object makes them easy to learn
gesture
- pair nouns with a gesture
- most of the nouns in caregiver input are often actually quite ambiguous
- by holding up, pointing to, or giving an object while labeling it, we can make the meaning of our words really clear
scenario 1: Margo opens the door of a piggy bank toy. Her mother holds up a cion, and says, “Here’s a coin!”
joint engagement = X
noun = yes
gesture = yes
- while mother’s language input was rich and clear, noticing what her child was specifically attending to would make her input more relevant
- we could say, “I love that you held up the coin for her while you labeled it, so it was really clear what you were referring to. In this moment though, she seems to be most interested in opening and closing the door. You could try pointing to it and labeling ‘door’ for her.”
scenario 2: Javier reaches for his cup that’s on the counter. His father hands it to him and says, “Here you go.”
joint engagement = yes
noun = X
gesture = yes
- while his father’s language matches his child’s direct focus, this would be a great opportunity to teach an object label
- we could say, “Great job responding to his communication! This could be a nice moment to say, ‘juice’ as you give him the cup. That way he’s learning a word he can use to request it next time.”
scenario 3: Jin is reading a book with his mother. He touches a picture of a hammer, and his mother points and says, “hammer.”
joint engagement = yes
noun = yes
gesture = yes
- his mother created a high-quality language-learning moment for her son
- we could say, “That was such a powerful teaching moment! He showed you he was interested in the hammer by touching it, and you pointed to the picture and labeled if for him to give the name.”
self-talk
- using simple child-friendly language to talk about what you are doing
- talk about what you are seeing, touching, feeling, smelling, and hearing
parallel talk
- using simple child-friendly language to talk about what the child is doing
- talk about what the child is seeing, touching, feeling, smelling, and hearing
