Communication Skills

One of the IEP goals that I am working diligently on with my focus child is paying attention and answering questions about the content we are learning accurately.  She struggles with staying focused, so when she is asked questions during a lesson, she has not idea how to answer.  Part of her difficulty also has to do with her limited knowledge of sign language.  She does not have the expanded knowledge of signs that she should have at this point in order to answer these questions appropriately. 

In order to address these issues, I will uses the communication strategies "choices" and "manding."  I usually take a story I have read to the class and ask my focus child questions about it.  Instead of signing the answers, she tends to point to the pictures when she can.  I think that giving her some choices of answers will help build her sign language vocabulary and help her understand that I am looking for a more detailed answer, not just pointing.  As she begins to develop some new vocabulary, I will begin to use manding more.  I try to request more detailed responses from her now, but, again, her vocabulary is just not where it needs to be.  I can also use these strategies when I am just having a casual conversation with her.  She tends to sign the same things over and over because she doesn't know what else to sign.  So we will work on giving her choices for answers to questions I ask her and manding more detailed responses in the very near future.  As we work on these strategies, I also want to work with my focus child on expanding her answers to more than two words.  Even when she does give me an answer, it is one or two words.  I want her to expand these thoughts into more of a sentence form.


Cook, Ruth E., Klein M. Diane, & Tessier, Annette. (2008). Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Children with Special Needs (7th Edition). Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hall.