Communication Issues I

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Communication Issues I

• in students with
• Autism Spectrum Disorders

Disclaimer The Southern California Autism
Training Collaborative (SCATC) has provided
information included in this original format of
the training manual (dated August 2007). SCATC
is not responsible for any changes made to this
training protocol by subsequent users.
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Why do YOU communicate with others?
Communication connects to everything reason,
social relationship, culture, learning and
reflection.
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Why do children communicate with others?

• The world of the child is all about connections
  not just words for words sake, but words in
  order to think, make friends, and learn about the
  world.

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Communicative Functions

• Behavior Regulation

Social Interaction
Joint attention
Learning to talk of one of the most visible and
important achievements of early childhood New
language tools mean new opportunities for social
understanding for learning about the world and
for sharing experiences, pleasures and needs.
Judith Johnson- Thinking About Child Language
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How do children communicate?
Communicative Means
Pre-verbal Unconventional gestures Conventional
gestures
Verbal Single words Word combinations Echolalia
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When do children communicate?

• When communication is FUN, REWARDING AND
  FUNCTIONAL

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The nature of language learning

• Language is both the product and the tool of
  intellect.
• Language serves communicative ends and is learned
  in the course of communication events
• Language learning is an active, abstracting
  process
• Language acquisition is a self-regulated process

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What if they dont do it well?and need
remediation
The purpose of any developmental intervention is
to accelerate or to redirect the course of
learning. J. Johnson

• 2 different points of view to remediation
• Teach to make weaknesses into strengths that can
  then be used
• Teach to compensate for weakness

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Use of direct learning

• There are children who dont see what we see and
  dont hear what we hear (Stephen Nowicki)

Do you know someone who is colorblind?
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Types of Developmental Language Disorders

• Viewed by cause - such as autism, deafness or
  developmental delays
• Viewed by affected areas - such as
  semantic-pragmatic disorder or grammatical,
  social relationships
• Viewed by mode - such as expressive or
  receptive deficits

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Students with autism may not

• discriminate Non Verbal (NV) cues
• understand the meaning of NV cues
• show the expression of appropriate NV cues
• apply NV cues to social situations

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When learning communication and social
interaction skills--students with ASD need to

• develop their AWARENESS,
• have opportunities to PRACTICE
• expand their APPLICATION of new skills that are
  learned.

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The importance of nonverbal communication.beyond
words

• The hidden language of relationships

Relationship is a process with phases and changes
that occur across a life span- It involves -a
choice, has a beginning, then deepens, there is
an ending and then another choice is made..
These cycles may last 5 -7 years.
Stephen Nowicki, PhD. - Emory University
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The transition from one phase of a relationship

• takes place through communication that is both
  verbal and nonverbal. Of the 2 modes of
  communication, NV is the more important.

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Similarities and Differences between Verbal and
NV languages

• Similarities include
• Both are organized sign systems that are
  considered a language
• Both are learned
• Both are complex
• Both are vulnerable to expressive and receptive
  deficits errors
• Both have conversational behaviors
• Both are developmental

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• Differences include
• Verbal language is discrete and can be stopped at
  will but NV language is continuous and cannot be
  stopped.
• NV language is communicated more out of our
  awareness than is verbal language.
• Errors in verbal usage is usually attributed to
  intelligence or education errors in NV usage are
  attributed to emotional states
• Verbal language is learned directly and formally
  NV language is learned indirectly and informally

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And remember this

• Whenever verbal language is incongruent with NV
  language we tend to believe the nonverbal

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Can you name these emotions?
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Starting with Nonverbal channels of communication

• Rhythm
• Personal space
• Touch
• Facial expressions
• Gestures
• Postures
• Objectics
• Paralanguage

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• Personal Space
• May not be aware until it is violated
• There is a bubble that we take with us
• When approaching others, walk towards each other,
  rock a bit and then settle into a comfort zone

• Rhythm
• Most primitive level---
• Heartbeat of mothers
• Be aware of it and then matching the pace of
  others

Intimate space 0 - 18 inches Conversational
space 18 in. to 3 feet Social space 4 - 12
ft Public space 12ft
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• Touch
• In most cultures, touch is acceptable only on the
  outside of body line.
• In US, dont touch as much from the age of 6
  years on
• Varies in males and females (ie hugs)

• Facial Expressions
• This area is one we think about most- 95 of
  research done
• It is the easiest to fake (girls are better at
  this by age 3)
• Rely on reading faces for social interactions
• Faces are seen as positive, neutral or negative

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• Gestures
• These are cultural and learned
• Conveys meaning
• Provides encouragement (ie - head nodding)

• Postures
• Resting
• Ready to engage
• Active
• Passive
• Opened
• Closed

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• Objectics
• What you put on yourself to communicate --
• Impressions are made.

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• Paralanguage
• Everything else that goes along with auditory
  communication, except the words. (pitch, rate,
  loudness, whining, etc)
• We talk slower than we can listen.

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Some communication interventions

• Picture Exchange Communication System - Andy
  Bondy and Lori Frost
• Links to Language - Marion Blank Pam Payne
• Pivotal Response Training - Robert Koegel Lynn
  Koegel
• Sign language
• Verbal Behavior Mark Sundberg

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Some social skills/relationship interventions
programs

• Floortime - Stanley Greenspan
• Hidden Curriculum - Brenda Smith Myles
• Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) -
  Steven Gutstein
• Social Skills Training - Jed Baker
• Social StoriesTM- Carol Gray
• Social ThinkingTM - Michelle Garcia-Winner
• Super Skills - Judith Coucouvanis
• SCERTSTM Barry Prizant Amy Wetherby

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It is Impossible Not to Communicate
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Please review individual slides for specific
references.Further references to be listed.