joint attention

[Guest guest]

My son is essentially non verbal but has the ability to repeat anything. He can

make one to two word mands. He is starting at a new school this week that knows

nothing about autism but is willing to learn. I will be there training for a

few weeks. Anyhow, he is extremely soft spoken and many opportunities for

communication are missed because he speaks so quietly and does not try to get

your attention. I need a simple way to teach attention getting. So even if he

uses PECS he will have to come up to the person and get their attention. How do

I get him to physically get their attention? How do I teach him to tap on their

arm or whatever to achieve their attention? He will have a one to one aide.

Thanks

Penny

[Guest guest]

At 07:43 PM 8/25/02, Penny Galloup wrote:

>My son is essentially non verbal but has the ability to repeat

>anything. He can make one to two word mands. He is starting at a new

>school this week that knows nothing about autism but is willing to

>learn. I will be there training for a few weeks. Anyhow, he is extremely

>soft spoken and many opportunities for communication are missed because he

>speaks so quietly and does not try to get your attention. I need a simple

>way to teach attention getting. So even if he uses PECS he will have to

>come up to the person and get their attention. How do I get him to

>physically get their attention? How do I teach him to tap on their arm or

>whatever to achieve their attention? He will have a one to one aide.

>

>Thanks

>Penny

Dear Penny,

I am not sure how familiar you are with PECS, but like many ABA

procedures, you break each step down. Because your son will have an aid it

won't be so difficult, IF the person learns and embraces the practice of

making each step discrete, chains it and reinforces heavily even at the

prompted steps.

Both with PECS and with learning to get attention appropriately, tapping

somebody on the arm, etc., you can start with your son literally being in

front of the person or beside the person, and fully physically prompt the

tap or if you are using PECS, fully prompt the exchange, and the aid or

yourself, etc., does nothing if possible, instead the person they

approached does the responding and reinforcing. The reason being as much as

possible you want to fade out the prompting person, so you don't want the

child to wait for them to be the positive reinforcement. You practice this

next to somebody until your child is independently tapping their arm, or

saying, " I want ____ " or using PECS, and you move back from them in stages

as the child demonstrates more profiency in the approach.

I hope that made sense. You might also want to reinforce VERY strongly when

you son does approach to make a request by himself, e.g., even if its to

get a cracker or a drink, etc. Expand on that in any way you can. There is

a phrase some people use called enticement. You would have something he

likes and entice, wave the item around, sample a bite if it's food and make

it sound delicious, play with a toy he may enjoy or you think he would be

interested in, read a page in a favorite story, and then pause and see if

he mands for the item, asks for the food, reaches for the toy, and so on.

If he does get an echoic or an independent mand, and reinforce his approach

as much as his words. You want to encourage all initiating, so even when he

opens something and gets something you can still say, " Ah, that's what you

wanted! You wanted a Curious book! " if he turns to you or you think

he wants any feedback at all.

Even before I knew about ABA in the real sense when Ize was past preschool

stage we worked on his joint attention constantly and it's now really very

good considering the degree of disability and language impairment. He

actually turns around to get our attention to show us what he was laughing

at on T.V.

Jennie