|
|
Just when you thought you've tried everything to help a child
succeed... well, there are MORE strategies that you can incorporate into
your classroom lessons. Try some of these classroom accommodations to help
your students improve their communication skills.
Difficulty with
Listening:
- Provide visuals
- Reduce extraneous noise (talking, radio,
A/C, outside noises)
- Modify vocal intonation patterns and
rate to emphasize key ideas and concepts
- Pause between each step when giving
directions
- Shorten listening time
- Use note-taking buddies, tape
recorder
- Avoid abrupt changes in topic and
straying from topic
Difficulty in Conversations and Small
Group Discussions:
- Provide direct instruction in the rules
of conversation (i.e., turn-taking, social distance, topic
maintenance)
- Provide student with responsibility or
position of leadership, with a clearly defined role
- Use strategy cards to teach group
interaction skills (online strategy cards here)
Difficulty Pronouncing Words or
Sounds:
- Using pictures of similar sounding
words, say each word and have the student point to the appropriate
picture (i.e., run vs. won)
- Play a game, such as "Simon Says" in
which the student tries to imitate the targeted words when produced by
the teacher or peers
- Have the student raise a hand or clap
hands when he/she hears the target sound produced during a series of
isolated sound productions (i.e., sssss, shshshsh, errrrr,
mmmmm, etc.)
Difficulty with Social
Skills:
- reinforce the student for using
appropriate verbal and/or nonverbal language in social situations or
interactions with peers and/or adults: give the student a tangible
reward (ie, classroom privileges, line leading, passing out materials,
five minutes free time, etc.) or intangible reward (ie, praise,
handshake, smile, etc.)
- act as an appropriate model in social
situations with adults and peers
- communicate to the student that he/she
is a worthwhile individual
- provide the student with many academic
and social successes
- pair the student with someone with whom
the student wold most want to converse and allow them to spend time
interacting each day
- reduce stimuli which contribute to the
student's inappropriate language
- use pictures or other visuals with
"scripts" that provide language needed during interactions (ie, When
someone says, "Hello," I say, "Hello, how are you?")
Difficulty with Fluency
(Stuttering):
- provide the student with an appropriate
model of slow, easy speech. Lengthen the pauses between words, phrases,
and sentences
- during conversations, calmly delay your
verbal responses by one or two seconds
- have the student practice techniques for
relaxing (ie, deep breathing, tensing and relaxing muscles, etc.) which
he/she can use
- encourage the student to maintain eye
contact during all speaking situations
- empathize with the student and explain
that he/she is not more or less valuable of a person because of
stuttering; emphasize the student's positive attributes
- allow ample time to continue speaking,
even if he/she is not speaking fluently
- do not interrupt or finish the student's
sentences even if you know what he/she is trying to say; this can be
extremely frustrating for the student and may decrease his/her
willingness to communicate
- do not require the student to speak in
front of other students if he/she is uncomfortable doing so
- when the student is dysfluent during
conversation, explain to him/her that this happens to everyone at
times
Hagan, J.S, McDannold, S.B., & Meyer,
J. 1990. The Speech & Language Classroom Intervention Manual.
Columbia, MO: Hawthorne Educational Services
This web page contains links to one or more web
pages that are outside the FCPS network. FCPS does not control the content
or relevancy of these pages.
|