Communicating...(sorry for the late post...)
A major part of life is communication. We have multiple ways of sharing information and more appear all the time. Dr. Z. struggled to communicate while growing up. He was unable to form words audibly until 4th grade. Share your experiences, trials, and breakthroughs, trying to communicate with your participants. What are some ways we can try to become more effective at communication? Keep in mind your learners and where they are developmentally compared to you!
Hint: most of us use verbal communication only when sharing thoughts, directions, feelings, etc broadcast to others. What are some other ways we could communicate (and maybe more successful at getting our messages across?) What about those who do not use verbal means for communication, what are some ways people communicate nonverbally? How can you begin to read those nonverbal cues?
On the first day I noticed my student using some sign language. The next week I talked with his mom about some of the different signs that he used frequently so that I could better understand what his needs and wants were. I have also tried to make sure that he is verbalizing things to me, not just pointing. It is a little harder to understand some of the things he is saying, but I have him repeat and try to say the things that he is trying to say to see if we are understanding each other.
ReplyDeleteBrian Dean
One of the first things I learned about my participant was that he was very nonverbal. The only things that he tends to say are "yes" and "no." I quickly learned that, even though he is mostly nonverbal, almost every time I asked him to perform a skill he would verbally repeat back. I also realized that it took him a while to perform the skills he was asked to perform, because it takes him a while to process the information. With these things in mind I ask my participant, with every task we perform, to repeat the task back to me as a form of communication . This is a method I use to help me communicate with him and help him understand what we are trying to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteGleiser Escarate
My CAPES! participant can actually communicate relatively well. As it relates to this week, however, I learned a good lesson about communicating with them. It was time to go into the locker room to change, and their parent was not there on time to help facilitate that. My student tied to run into the dressing room without me an/or their parent. I restricted that action, informing them their mom wanted them to wait for her help. Well, shortly after I did that, my participant wet themself. Now, I'm not sure what the motive was behind that, but it was obviously a communication problem between me and them. Maybe it was to spite me for not letting them in, maybe it was accidental. But I wish I had developed a relationship in which they felt comfortable sharing when they needed to use the restroom, instead of just going right then and there. I recognize the need for better communication going forward!
ReplyDeleteSo, as I think about what I could do differently, I want my participant to trust me. I think trust is essential in trying to communicate to others, and getting these kids to speak to us. I also think it's important to get on their level. To not insist that the only way we're going to communicate is through traditional means. We ourselves have to step out of our comfort zones and learn new things, if we are expecting them to do the same.
Communication is the lesson of this semester! I have found it to be so difficult to communicate effectively to my student. And it is no fault of hers. It just require different methods, and practice on both of our parts. This past week we were practicing learning the names of coins. I realized if I talked to her in 'baby talk' she acted less responsible. But as I spoke to her in a clear, adult voice, she took herself and me more seriously. I am still trying to discover how to communicate activities, time, and explanations to her questions better so she doesn't feel the need to continue asking and so we can avoid confusion when starting new activities.
ReplyDeleteI also would like to keep her attention better as I show her and set the example of what I want from her. There are many other ways to communicate, I think I will be spending the rest of CAPES trying to discover more of those ways.
Communication is something that I really struggled with this week, I worked with two girls who were on completely different levels of verbal communication, that I often found one getting board with how easy I made things, or the other getting frustrated that I couldn't understand her. so next time I am going to give pictures a try and being more animated with my actions and facial expressions, sometimes when we may not know what people are saying we can still know how they are feeling or what might be going on by there expressions.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is a struggle with me because T is very non-verbal and I normally communicate in verbal form. When I was growing up I had some issues with my speech and had to go to a therapist. I just remember how frustrating it was to not be understood or not to be able to say exactly what I wanted to say. I can see with T a lot of times because he is communicating but just not with words. I think it would be very beneficial for me to use a lot more pictures and non-verbal demonstration for him. He is extremely smart and can follow tasks but it just comes down to him understanding me or me understanding him. Communication is taken for granted most of the time by individuals who can speak and hear on a normal basis. Trying to modify tasks for T all has to stem from if he can understand how I am communicating the task to him.
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