Whenever I worked at a severely autistic/mentally retarded community living house (the agency sent me to different cities) one of the most important things I needed to know was about each person's way of communicating. The person would be in distressed if staff didn't know their words and meanings for the words. They would cry and kick objects.

 You would see someone up at midnight wanting something. This place was their home. There were only gestures not picture cards. You could feel their upset with outbursts of behavior after they patiently tried for 5 minutes to communicate their way. It could wake everyone up too. It was especially difficult for staff to not treat mentally retarded the same way as autistic. It took a lot of effort to first explain things to the staff so that everyone was on board. Then to communicate and do what the person wanted. We spent extra time reassuring the person that we would be there to help them.

It was similar to my childhood friend who was deaf from birth. It took our friend so much effort to get his words out. We tried to treat him like everyone else. I felt it was a matter of his patience. Our friend would hit his mom at times whenever there were difficulties in talking to her. Our friend was intelligent. Later he attended college at Gallaudet University.

One thing I have learned that sometimes under the frustration is intelligence. I have seen frustration used as a way for the person to find there own way to meet their needs. (This isn't true for everyone.) I would try to encourage and support whatever way the person was using to meet her/his needs.

A few years ago I had the expereince of working with pre-school autistic children. My job was to work with children who had little or no communication skills and teach them, primarily through PECS, how to communicate. It was amazing, and the results were tremendous. I had been in education for many years (I am now retired), but this expereince changed my life. The biggest change was seeing the children I worked with emerge from being restless, irritable and frightened to being more self assured and happier that they were finally able to 'tell' us (our staff of 4), what they wanted. With this communication, we began teaching them basic skills. I was fortunate to work in a county that had this program for these kids, and, after pre-school, they continued their education in the same public school setting with the help of an aid.

What I learned is that there are so many ways in which one can communicate, and not all of them are through the traditional literary forms. These children were very intelligent, and in time will learn to read and write. Many, also, do very well in Math. I also learned that "eye" contact was very important. They were 'reading' me as much as I was 'reading' them.

A couple times a week, I go and volunteer at a place that helps autistic children. I usually work with this nice and sweet kid. His name's Ryan. He loves to say his numbers up to 20 and his ABC's. He doesn't talk much and when you ask him a question, he says "No" everytime. He doesn't make a great conversational partner but he's really sweet. The limitation of talking with him is kind of better than actually talking. He knows some sign language and he just loves to play basketball. I mean, he's really really good. He never misses a shot. But even though we don't talk much (even though he does try to talk) I can understand him just by looking at him. I get what he wants and what he needs.

Sometimes, talking isn't the way to communicate. Sometimes, all you need to hear is silence. Words can confuse you but silence can't.

Kristina, Skinner taught us that Verbal behaviour is defined by the "speaker" understanding that they can have an effect on the "listener" meaning that no matter how they choose to communicate, as long as they realise that you have to be there and listening, it works. The first example of verbal behaviour is a toddler who falls, then looks around to see if anyone is there, then goes all over the house looking for you, then cries.

It is not the echolalic Aspie perseverating on a tv script who cannot tell you when they need a juice or cookie, or paracetamol.

And vocalisations are not promptable. you cannot breathe air through the larynyx of a child with autism then reward them for making a sound. Whereas you can prompt them to sign drink or pic up a pecs card and hand it to you to get a cookie. Then reward.

When and if they choose to pair vocalisations with the sign or card is their choice. the point is that they are having their needs met, with discrimination as to how they want their toast or tea or lemonade with ice.

If they vocalise, great! differentially reinforce., If they don't but they request or comment appropriately using an augmentative communication then reward that too.

Out tutors have always done this with PECS and recently took the decision to use LAMH which is a simple irish sign language, that the whole school community is learning together. I can tell you it is very easy to prompt social communication like "HI!" with LAMH, and that it is very rewarding to hear my little lady greet me.

it is never too late for communication. NEVER!
xx

We learn one sign per week and they put a photograph of the supervisor signing in the reception area. LaMH is the closest thing to playing charades, a bit like Makaton.

The only weakness is if the speaker does not progress to talking, they will have to learn full irish sign language in order to develop their vocabulary beyond the 300 simple signs.
that's where PECS has its advantage.
xx

How do you get a child with autism to WANT to communicate with you? Kayla is nonverbal, but the only thing she wants to communicate is GET ME (food, toy, etc) using photo cards or grabbing someone by the hand and leading them to what she wants. We just can't seem to get past the requesting stage, which is basically just using people as tools. She lacks that whole joint attention thing, so she doesn't have anything she wants to communicate with us that doesn't involve her own needs.

Ecki: you have to pair it. Pairing means that you take what is interesting or rewarding for your child, and match it up with what you want them to learn. You also have to stop leading. If you do a pecs course (look at the website) the first stage is to start putting the card between you and the item. Child hands you card and you give item. The next step is distance, they have to find you and give you the card. NO LEADING!

 Then you start introducing a prefix "I want" - the item on a strip of card. Requesting has to be the first step as it is immediately rewarding and it teaches the child the power of interacting with you. You can teach discrimination at this stage (color, size quantity) or just ensure the cards they use are specific to their need. For now.

The next step is tacting (a skinner word short for contact) where you teach the child to comment on items. Start with a picture book and prompt them to tell you what you point to - you do this with a tangible reward that they really like, delivered immediately.

eg: Point to the duck in the picture "Whats this?"

Prompt the child to take the "Its a" card from Pecs board, then the "duck" picture and make a sentence on the velcro strip,  and then hand it to you (they learn all this when requesting)

You read the sentence with them (holding their finger on each card) and then reward immediately. That way telling you what something is becomes paired with the sweet taste of an m&M or a crisp and praise. Always praise - because eventually you can fade the m&m and just use praise.

Doing a lot of these exercises teaches the child that sharing or telling about things is a rewarding exercise. You have to take it beyond picture books and use actual items. You also have to take it outside and pair it with things you might see when out together, but by using the promptable commenting, you give them the structure to share.

then one day you may be able to point to a dog as you pass, and hear the child say "Dog" (when that happens break out the brass band, and hug them and give them your last rolo)

The best day is when you don't even point, you just hear a little voice say"Bird" and look around to see a seagull picking at the crumbs on the ground. - they noticed it and decided to share it.

But you HAVE to start with what THEY like, and learn to take an interest in that yourself. If they dont like animals, but seem to be fascinated by cars or movie posters or paint charts, then you gotta use that.

xx

Pecs is a very easy way for lay persons to learn the fundamentals of ABA. Bondy follows skinners principals and has chosen to use pictures as the promptable foundations of communication. The course also teaches token reinforcement, which is the first step of replacing the tangible reward like an m&m with a token. That way you can follow the child's interest and come up with bigger rewards. They exchange 3 tokens and get to go out and play with the hose, or something that isnt suited to the table top.
Token reinforcement is also the basis for differential reinforcement. If they do a good thing, they get one token, they do an amazing thing - they get two. They always get praise and encouragement, but sometimes you give more. Thats how they learn the importance of social praise.

Kristina: it would be fantastic if you could come to Belfast this June and attend the PEAT (Parents Education as Autism Therapists) conference on the 26/27th. go to my blog http://irishautismaction.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-friends-in-north.html

"Facing Autism" The theme this year is "Effectively Educating for Life"
The overwhelming theme of these conferences is always that behaviour is everything and anything that a dead person cannot do. So Analysis of Behaviour and  Application (ABA)  of that analysis is always beyond the table top and classroom.

If the schools version of ABA is "tight" - this demonstrates that the therapists are not expanding what they have learned in terms of task analysis, pairing and modeling to teach Charlie whatever you and he and Jim want him to learn. And Speech therapists are notoriously unwilling (and unable) to incorporate skilled differential reinforcement into their teaching trials, and to go beyond the table top.  Bratty's first LAMH sign was "open"  because we could prompt her to use it whenever we were presented with a closed packet of crisps or buttons, a closed gate to the pool, or playground, or a closed car door that would take you to McDonalds. She learned it fast!
Our current one is "Hi!" - which happens whenever we see her, and is followed by a smile and a tickle.
I also adapted a PECS book to bring to the pool and would not get into the water until she made a sentence, "I want - Mummy - jump" then I would do a dramatic bomb with as much splash as possible.
One day she couldn't be bothered getting out of the water to make the sentence so she said it spontaneously while paddling around. I made a splash worthy of that scene in Shallow Hal that day! She got it!

Because of the nature of our 13 ABA schools, (all set up by parents) I have been lucky enough to attend several conferences lead by people whose approach to aba is always "whatever it takes"
I think you would enjoy it (and everyone would fete you!!)
xx

Mom uses hip-hop as teaching tool (CNN News 5/31/2009)

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/05/30/whitfield.hip.hop.baby.cnn
Hip-hop as teaching tool 3:55A mother uses hip-hop to teach her special-needs child. CNN's Fredricka Whitfield explains.

What I found interesting is that her son responded to a song for everything he did. A toothbrush song, bus song etc. Kinda of an interesting concept.

I also want to add that we used computers in our school program. We had the students play simple games and also hear stories, by with they participated by 'clicking' on various pictures to create their own scenes. We also used Art programs, by which they colored and sketched. Our kids loved using the computer. They learned eye-hand coordination by using the mouse, and we also used 'touch screen' applications. We have found that there was no limit to the stimuli we could present, and there was no limit to how much they wanted to engage in.