moondog and others: any brilliant visual /ABA things for how? and why?

[linglette]

Some of you may know that with moondog's guidance and clever visual/ABA tricks, my little lad (4.3, bad receptive language delay, ASD traits, classic visual learner) now has age-appropriate understanding of the word and concept "when", despite his pretty bad delay. We did it with a calendar, a "timetimer" and a coloured in kitchen clock over about six months.
Moondog, I think if it existed you'd already have shared it, but I don't suppose you have any similarly brilliant visual ideas relating to "how" or "why?" have you? I've read some pure verbal ideas ..... but it's so hard to imagine him using language to understand this kind of language still.....

dS2 is 4.3 and has good understanding of Where, What and When and is nearly there on Who though still sometimes says "what's that?" instead of "who's that?".

Thanks as ever in advance.

I love love love the Fun Decks they sell on this site (although it isn't obvious really on t'Internet just how good they are.There is a UK distributor who have a good catalogue but i forget who. The American company should let you know who they are.)

For 'Why?' i'd set a goal of asking 20 questions a day. Set up scenarios and seize on everyday events.

'Why is the baby crying?'
'Why are you wet?'
'Why is there no school today?' (calendar great for this)
'Why is Daddy sleeping?'
'Why is there milk on the floor?'

That 140 opps. a week. Log responses-should become more spontaneous with hard work and sustained input which is logged and analysed.

For 'How?', someone on here had superb idea of pretending to be a robot and getting her kid to tell her how to do everyday things, while she put on mad voice and moved about jerkily.

'How-do-I-eat-cereal?'
'How-do-I-find-the -fruit-and-vegetables-in-Tesco?'
'How-do-I-clean-teeth?'

I am in middle of very exciting project using home/school diary in an interactive way to relelntlessly target stuff like this (also sequencing).Idea is that parnet sets questions on diary for teaching staff to ask the child (parent also pencils in answer so if necessary, an intelligent prompt can be given) School does the same.

Over time it is easy to see where a child having big problems and to target it relentlessly. This is also used in conjunction with daily written (or picture) timetable so child can look at it when needing help with sequencing questions like
'What did you do before break?'

'What was the last thing you did at school?'

Also empty clock faces by relevant part od timetable that child fills in, thus relentleslly targetting time telling and making it real.

This in effect becomes the therapy. In addition, the child quickly learns to attend all the time as they know they will be asked about past events twice a day.Parents also get to know just what goes on in school and are an active part in the educational/therapeutic process.

It becomes more and more fluent and seamless.With my own child, she is answering up to 30 complex questions a day about what happened 9and why and how and when etc) at school and about 20 from home.

Differnece in lang. comp and expression amazing.

Involved in formalising this as a research project.

Forgot to add, you can model this first with another kid or adult.

A superb rule of thumb when introducing something new (whatever it is)is to use the

Model
Lead
Test

appoach

Also can be considered like this

'I do it'
'We do it'
'You do it'

This means the child has had two chances to get the hang of something before venturing out on his own. So important-so often these kids havent' a clue what it is we want them to do.
By playing up the 'I do it' bit ('Sssh! Listen to me. Don't you dare make a peep you monkey! It's my turn!!) you set up some clever reverse psychology.The child usually hren really excited about having a go. Also makes such a refreshing change for them as they are generally relentlessly harassed with 'Do this! Do this! Do this!'

It has worked superbly with scores of kids i work with and i apply it to everything i do when showing someone a new skill.
(eg today, when cooking with the kids and teaching them to juggle).

thank you so much moondog.

DS2 loves playing cards so I can imagine whiling away the afternoons with him very happily with those.

One more question if I may: do you think I should perhaps buy the "where" and "when" fundecks first so he can grasp the concept of the game itself using a language concept ("where?") that he already understands? Then once he is used to those games, perhaps move on to "how" and "why"?

Inevitably, they aren't cheap, but if you rate them I'll definitely go for it

Am printing off your answers and will stick 'em on wall next to computer. Have new mission

Am sooooo chuffed the robot thing is working for others! My DS still loves doing this even though he has the hang of 'how' now. In fact the cheeky chappy now pretends to be the robot himself

Am also going to print this off as he still has yet to get the hang of 'when' properly.

Can you explain what the timetimer is and how you used it to help him learn 'when'? We have a calendar up in DS's room and every week I draw pictures of whats coming up and we cross through it at bedtime saying "today has finished" which he does brilliantly but bless him he still ain't got a clue really of time

www.timetimer.com

I think everyone should have one!

(L we love your clock - £1.39 from Ikea, pop the front off with jeweller's screwdriver, snip minute/second hands off, colour in morning/afternoon/evening, put front back on - took less than 5 minutes)

v. v. helpful thread, thanks linglette, Moondog and others.

Barmy it was a brilliant idea!

Linglette if funds run to it then I would.
Kids with comm. diffculties need priming on the rules of the game (be it the tabletop version or that of RL.They need explicit 'This is how it works'guidance. before striking out alone.

Re time and calendar, keep at it.For us it took a year to sink in.A calnedar deals with longterm time and a timetimer deals with short term time. Check out the website for complete explanation.I'd advise going for one with an alarm too for when time is up.

Timetimer

This is also why the

Model
Lead
Test

protocol works so well.

Here are the full details of the UK distrbutors for fundecks.

Taskmaster Ltd.
Morris Rd.
Leicester, LE2 6BR
Great Britain
Phone: 44-116-270-4286

Incentive Plus
6 Fernfield Farm
Whaddon Road
Little Horwood
Milton Keynes
Great Britain
MK17 0PR

ROMPA (aka Winslow, Speechmark)
Goyt Side Rd.
Chesterfield, Derbyshire S40 2PH
Great Britain
Phone: 01246-211777

have ordered the full pack of 22 (I know, I know......must be a millionaire, thank god this forum is free) and happy to provide feedback/loans in due course.

Just stumbled on this thread after having spent last few weeks banging my head against the wall for inspiration!! DD is accomplished at nouns but suddenly we had verbs flying everywhere and her incessant scripting started to be put into the correct context - I had no idea how to leap on this and take it onto the next level. We've come to the end of speech therapy until next year (already researching private ones) and I've been completely out of my depth with no focus on how to help DD. Thanks chaps

The Robot (called Robert here!) is already a hit...I'm feeling all fired up. My credit card is also itching to buy 'fundecks' ...who needs Xmas as an excuse

Thanks for that Linglette.
I also have the full set!

Moondog you are a star. I am going to quote you (without credit) to DS's teachers. You explain things so well.

Very pleased you have found it helpful Debs.