Communication Skills and Strategies

“The three terms-communications, speech, and language – are related, but each has a different meaning: Communication refers to the exchange of messages through an interaction between two people, usually a speaker and a listener. For this exchange to be called a communicative act, it must be meaningful to both participants. Language refers to the knowledge and use of a symbolic code or set of rules involving syntax or grammar that transmits meaning from one person to another. The most familiar code system is oral language, but there are other code systems such as computer languages, Morse code and sign language. Oral language is often divided into receptive oral language and or expressive oral language. Receptive oral language refers to the ability to listen to and understand the language of others. For example, when Neveah can follow a direction such as, “Tell me what letter you see on the card?” she is demonstrating skill in receptive language. Expressive oral language is the ability to use language and communicate meaning to others in words so that another person will understand. For example, when Neveah says, “I want more milk; she is using expressive language to communicate a desire.  Speech is the verbal tool for conveying oral language. It consists of the speaker using the oral mechanism to produce actual utterances. The use of speech depends on the child’s abilities with oral-motor skills, coordination of breathing, sound production, use of the tongue, placement of the lips and teeth and articulation of sounds (Lerner, Lowenthal & Egan, pp. 214-215).”

Cook, Klein and Tessier define three dimensions of language: content, use, and form. Each of these dimensions includes several traditional linguistic subskills, such as semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, and pragmatics (p. 253).” Problems in language in young children who have disabilities stem from a number of conditions. Often, the first sign of a disability is the child’s difficulty in learning language. Neveah’s disability was recognized at 15 months when an assessment determined that she had cognitive delays and communication delays. She continues to have speech therapy at her pre-school.  Children with developmental cognitive delays acquire language in much the same way as typically developing children, but at a slower rate and with less complexity (Lerner, Lowenthal & Egan, p. 226). “Speech disorders include problems in three areas: articulation, voice, and fluency.  1. Articulation disorders are caused by structural defects, neuromotor defects, or hearing impairments. The four types of articulation disorders are substitutions (using one sound for another), distortions (mispronouncing the sounds), omissions (leaving out sounds), and additions (putting in extra sounds). Articulation errors are considered by speech and language therapists as the least serious of the speech disorders and the most responsive to intervention. Many articulation errors are developmental and disappear as the child matures, usually by age 6 or 7. 2. Voice disorders include pitch, intensity, and voice quality problems. Possible causes are physiological, such as growths in the larynx, and voice abuse, such as excessive screaming and hearing impairments. Voice disorders are somewhat rare at preschool age. Less than 1 percent of preschoolers are estimated to have these difficulties. 3. Fluency Problems.  Most common fluency problem is stuttering (pp.227-228).  I cannot understand what Neveah says sometimes even though I ask her to tell me again. Other times, her speech is clear. I have observed that when asked a question about a story that is being read to the class, she is not able to answer the question.

The strategy that I have used with Neveah is naturalistic teaching (language instruction that occurs in informal settings such as in the classroom). I follow her interests and the topic of conversation is initiated by her. “Two examples of naturalistic language interventions are milieu teaching and responsive interactions. Milieu teaching is a strategy in which adults, such as parents and teachers, deliberately arrange the environment with interesting materials to encourage a child’s language and development. Three procedures are used in milieu training:  1. Mand-model in which the adult attends to the youngster’s choice of an activity or toy, requests or “mands” (demands) a response from the child about the activity, provides a model to imitate, and then gives the child the toy or material of interest. 2. The second procedure is the use of a time delay procedure. 3. The third procedure is incidental teaching, which requires that the child initiate a topic of conversation and that the adult converse about the topic.  Responsive interaction (or pivotal response treatment) is another example of naturalistic language intervention. This intervention does not use prompts, as in milieu teaching. Instead, responsive interaction places emphasis on developing an interaction style that promotes balanced turn taking and communication between the adult and the child…Teaching strategies include the use of expansions expatiations (child: boy eats. Adult: Yes, he’s eating crackers), parallel talk (if the child is banging a block on the floor, the teacher may say, ‘Hit the block, Hit the block on the floor. Bang, bang, bang,’ and self-talk when adults talk about what they are doing, seeing, or feeling while the child listens nearby. Teachers need to speak in simple, short phrases as they describe their actions and thoughts. Self-talk and parallel talk allows children to hear models of more complex language and to realize that language is fun and useful (Lerner, Lowenthal & Egan, pp. 229-231).” “Appendix H in our textbook describes a common sequence of steps used in milieu approaches (Cook, Klein and Tessier, p. 278).”

Oral language is the most crucial area of academic focus during the pre-kindergarten years. It is the primary means by which children gain knowledge about the world and it is the foundation for children’s literacy development. Reading aloud to children is one of the best ways to facilitate oral language and vocabulary development.  I read a book (or two) to Neveah on each classroom visit. Some of her favorites have been two pop-up books, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. I have read The Big Red Barn, Peter Rabbit, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, the Three Little Pigs, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, The Three Bears and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I have given copies of PBS Families UNC-TV Just for Kids to Neveah (and all students) for parents and caregivers to read about making bedtime a peaceful time. On Friday, I gave the teacher copies of A Child Becomes a Reader, proven ideas from research for Parents, Birth through Preschool, 3^rd edition by the National Institute for Literacy to send home with all of her students.  I donated a “spring” tree to the classroom. It is 20 inches tall with small items to hang on the tree which symbolize spring (flowers, garden tools, butterflies, ect). I try to expose Neveah to completely new words and pair it with a concrete object, an action or a brief explanation. Two key areas of oral language are vocabulary and phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in language). Children cannot understand the words they encounter in text or the meaning conveyed by them unless these words are already in their receptive vocabularies. She pays attention to sound in language as we hear alliteration and when we clap syllables. She enjoys listening to and discussing storybooks and understands the overall sequence of events in stories. She is trying to act out familiar stories, songs, rhymes and finger and counting games in play activities. I engage her in conversations about books by asking her completion questions (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I see a red bird looking at ___”. Recall questions to check her understanding of the content of the story. Open-ended questions to engage her in extended talk about the book. “W” questions-who, what, when, where, why-to teach vocabulary and Distancing or bridging prompts to help her relate some ideas in the book to life experiences beyond the story. At the end of Little Red Ridinghood is a picture of the grandmother, the woodsman, and Little Red Riding Hood having tea and eating cookies and cake. We talked about what foods she liked and she told me that her grandmother is having a birthday soon and that she wanted to help bake a birthday cake. I go to lunch with her and we talk the food that she is eating (or not eating) and what she is drinking (mostly strawberry milk). I give her opportunities to initiate communication. For example, a doll in the classroom had hair that was extremely messy looking and Neveah said, “My grandmother would say that the doll’s hair looks ‘nappy.’ That hair needs fixing” (Neveah’s hair is always neatly plaited).  In closing, I agree with our textbook authors when they said, “Key adult behaviors that facilitate communication skills are listening and responding to children’s communication attempts and carefully mapping language onto children’s experiences (p. 253).”

References:

Cook, Ruth E., Klein, M.D. & Tessier, A. (2004). Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Children in Inclusive Settings. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 253, 278 and Appendix H, pp. 434-435.

Lerner, Janet W., Lowenthal, B & Egan, R.W. (2003).  Preschool Children with Special Needs, Children at Risk and Children with Disabilities.  New York: Pearson Education, Inc. pp.226-231.