The three words of speech, language and communication are often used in daily life and are easily confused, in fact, although speech, language and communication are related to each other, they have different meanings.
To speak is to speak. It is the activity of the neuromusculars that produce sounds, and the vocal muscles work with the brain to produce sounds in language. Speech is our main way of speaking, through which we can communicate smoothly with other people.
Language is a set of regular symbol systems, and through the sharing of these abstract symbols, the purpose of communication can be achieved. When a person is unable to speak or cannot speak does not mean that the person does not have language ability, if he can understand and use written words or sign language, he still has language ability.
In the daily teaching process, speech and language training for children with autism can employ the following strategies:
I. "Teacher-led Training Strategies"
In the teaching process, the teacher is the leader, from the decision of the training goal to the selection of stimulus materials, the type of reinforcement and the frequency of use, the teaching sequence and the confirmation of the child's target response are all determined by the teacher's planning.
The teaching process adopts the ABC theory of language behavior. A refers to the antecedent or stimulus, B refers to the behavior, and C refers to the consequence. Teachers encourage, correct and ignore the child's behavior, if the child's behavior is correct, the teacher will give the child encouragement to strengthen, if the child's behavior is incorrect, the teacher will give the child feedback, correction or ignore the incorrect behavior. The training method is as follows:
1. Suggestion: The teacher reminds the child to respond to a spoken or non-spoken signal. For example, a teacher tapping a child's hand suggests that he should respond to the stimulus provided.
2. Delayed imitation: After the teacher's demonstration, other teaching materials are presented, and then the child is asked to imitate the language just demonstrated by the teacher. For example, the teacher pointed to a picture and said to the child, "This is a kitten, it is an animal." Then pointing to the picture again and asking the child, "What kind of animal is this?" Hopefully, the child will be able to say, "This is a kitten." " sentence.
3. Direct imitation: Teachers ask children to imitate immediately after presenting stimulation. For example, the teacher points to the picture and says, "This is a kitten, tell me what it is?" Or "This is a kitten." Immediately afterwards, he tapped the child's hand and asked him to imitate it, "This is a kitten." ”
4. Tip: Teachers provide clues to assist children in exhibiting targeted behaviors. For example, the goal of teaching is to guide children to make nasal sounds, and teachers can point to their noses to prompt children to make nasal sounds.
5. Enhancement: After the child has a correct reaction, the teacher provides the child with an item or activity that the child likes, which can increase the frequency of the child's correct reaction, which is enhanced. For example, when a child shows the correct target behavior, give the child favorite food or allow him to play with toys. It must be something or activity that the child loves as an enhancer to enhance the frequency of their correct behavior.
6. Gradual cultivation: When the goal seems to be difficult to achieve, the goal can be divided into smaller goals, and each time these small goals are achieved, they are enhanced, so that the goal behavior is achieved step by step.
In integrated training, the teacher decides the target behavior, selects the material that promotes the language and verbal response, and conducts structured training in a predetermined order, and then according to the child's behavior performance, selects the appropriate enhancer to enhance its correct response, and can be given a material enhancement, candy, biscuit, small toy, or token enhancement, sticker, seal, etc., or verbal and physical enhancement.
These trainings can also be arranged in pre-designed play activities, which can enhance children's motivation to participate, and in the game, if the child behaves correctly, it will be enhanced in various ways. Teacher-led behaviors are a very effective way to establish new target behaviors at the beginning, and once the new goals are acquired, they can be slowly transferred to more natural situations.
II. "Child-Led Training Strategies"
Instead, "child-led training strategies" and "teacher-led training strategies" emphasize interventional training in a real-world setting. Under the familiar environment of children and the warm interaction of communication partners, it is not only easier to learn goals, but also the acquired behaviors will be more easily and actively classified into daily communication.
"Child-led training strategies", including training content, timing and training sequence. A key step in this approach is to "wait" for the child to begin a communicative behavior, and the teacher grasps the communicative behavior and gives an appropriate communication response. Unlike the "teacher-led training strategy", the "child-led training strategy" is an intervention of naturalness, in which children participate in fun, happy and meaningful daily activities under the interaction of responsive and communicative partners. The training method is as follows:
1. Game training method: In this method, teachers arrange a rich environment in games or daily activities, and encourage children to take the initiative to develop targeted behaviors through the following speaking skills.
(1) Self-dialogue: The teacher observes the child's behavior in an activity, then joins the activity, and then vividly describes the behavior done in the activity. For example, if a child is building blocks, the teacher will learn him to build blocks, and then say, "I am building blocks, building tall." ”
(2) Parallel Dialogue: The teacher observes the child's ongoing activity and then clearly describes the activity. For example, if a child is building blocks, the teacher looks intently at the child's behavior and then says, "You are building blocks, so high!" ”
(3) Expansion: Expand children's expression of incomplete or ungrammatical sentences or phrases to make them grammatical sentences. For example, if a child says ,"Sister drinks," the teacher first indicates that he understands its semantics, and then expands the sentence to a more complete sentence: "Yes, sister is drinking water." ”
(4) Extension: Teachers extend children's sentences by adding new semantic messages, making them richer and more complete and grammatical sentences. For example, if a child says, "My sister drinks," the teacher, in addition to responding to her understanding, adds the reason why her sister drinks water, saying, "Yes, because my sister is thirsty, she should drink water." ”
(5) Recasting: The teacher uses a new sentence form to express the child's words in its entirety. For example, if a child says "sister drinks", the teacher changes the sentence from an affirmative sentence to a question sentence. You can say, "Who's drinking water?" Is it a sister? ”
2. Functional training method: In addition to the game training method, the use of functional training method can also be considered for older children. In functional training, through the support of teachers, children practice communication skills in routine activities of daily life to achieve communication functions. For example, a child with social communication difficulties can practice how to communicate with others on the phone with his teacher on the phone, and finally call a family member or partner at the prompt of the teacher.
The different nature of the training style must depend on the nature and severity of the child's communication disorder, or on the individual's response to different strategies. Choosing the right strategy for individuals is a college question, and effective training strategies play a top priority in improving children's language and speech training.