Expanding Language and Communication By Teaching Grammar

1
Expanding Language and Communication By Teaching
Grammar
2
English Versus Romanian

• I drink.
• You drink
• She drinks
• We drink
• You drink (pl.)
• Red ball
• Red pencil
• My ball
• My pencil

• Eu beau
• Tu bei
• Ea bea
• Noi bem
• Voi beti
• Mingea rosie
• Creionul rosu
• Mingea mea
• Creionul meu

3
Deficits In Language

• Can lead to deficits in functional communication.
  (Getting wants and needs met)
• Can attribute to deficits in socialization. Both
  initiating and reciprocating social interactions,
  as well as, carrying on interactions via
  conversations.
• Can attribute to deficits in play. (Interactive
  play, socio-dramatic play, joining play)

4
Three Term Contingency Model

• Antecedent Behavior- Consequence
• Antecedents Environmental and biological
  conditions occurring before a specific behavior.
• Behavior A concrete action that can be
  operationally defined and empirically measured.
• Consequence What occurs following a specific
  behavior.

5
Verbal Behavior

• Skinners analysis of verbal behavior teaches us
  about the function of verbal behavior and how
  environmental contingencies control verbal
  behavior.
• Typically developing children learn language,
  communication and grammar largely through
  incidental exposure to the environment.
• Individuals with autism and other developmental
  disabilities often do not learn language or
  communication in the same incidental manner. A
  child who isnt learning grammar incidentally
  needs structured lessons to learn how to speak
  correctly.
• Therefore, it is import that we structure lessons
  for language acquisition in a manner that
  supports learning. In other words, we have to
  arrange antecedent conditions to teach specific
  language and grammar concepts. In this way we
  are teaching the form of verbal behavior.

6
Adjectives (Color)

• Masculine/Feminine/Neutral Singular/Plural
• LESSON
• Begin by choosing one color and one target from
  both a masculine and feminine form.
• You will teach the child to label the
  noun/adjective combination and discriminate
  between targets. (Masina albastra/tricou
  albastru)
• Once this is mastered subsequent targets should
  be presented in pairs and put in random rotation
  with previously mastered pairs.
• This process is repeated until the child
  spontaneously label using the correct adjective
  form without intensive training.

7
Personal Pronouns

• Personal Pronouns, ideally, should be taught in
  vivo, in order that the child understand the real
  world meaning.
• Personal pronouns can also be taught using
  pictures to represent the persons to be labeled.
  (El, Ea etc..)
• Once labels are taught pronouns can be
  transferred to pairing with verbs. (El bea
  apa.)

8
Possessive Pronouns

• The first person should be taught first in
  regards to gender (masc./fem.). This should be
  taught in the noun/pronoun format (masina
  mea/tricou meu).
• The second and subsequent persons should,
  generally, be taught seperately and then put in
  random rotation with other mastered persons.
• Fluency between persons should be taught in order
  that the speaker doesnt have to think when
  using a pronoun. Now you are ready to put this
  concept together with other concepts to build
  language.
• Fluency is taught without a vocal Sd.

9
Possessive Pronouns (A Cui?)

• Anwering mine/yours is taught after my/your.
• This is taught by adding the question A cui?.
• This is taught after my/your due to the fact that
  it is used less in speach. Teaching the
  mine/your forms (A meu/Al meu etc.) may make it
  more difficult to learn to use mea, meu, ta, tau
  etc.. correctly when pairing them with the noun.
  
• Also, it is easier to discriminate when to use
  Al meu, A mea, etc.. when the cue for using the
  pronoun is being asked the question, A cui?.

10
Articles

• You will first target labeling un/o with one
  pair of masculine and feminine nouns.
• Once the child is able to discriminate additional
  pairs will be taught systematically and run in
  random rotation with previously mastered pairs.
• The concept is mastered when the child
  spontaneously is using the correct article before
  nouns that were not trained in this format.
• Doua/doi and multe/multi are taught in the same
  format. A prerequisite for this is the ability
  to discriminate between plural and singular
  nouns. All forms should be run in fluency with
  one another and eventually paired with other
  language concepts. For example, Tu ai doua
  masini in mana..

11
Verbs

• Common Errors
• Teaching 2D labels with a subject and a noun
  added to the label (Fata mananca banana).
  Remaining too long on 2D 3rd person labels before
  teaching other persons in vivo.
• The format of teaching verbs depends on the
  learning style of the child. Following are
  differing formats for teaching verb conjugations.

12
Teaching Verbs Format One

• If it is possible, teach verb conjugations in
  vivo by teaching the child how to say the verb
  without the pronoun. This is done, because
  people naturally speak using the verb without the
  pronoun. (beau, bei, bea, bem, beti)
• You can first do this by teaching the child to
  discriminate between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person
  forms for each verb. Each verb should be taught
  seperately, then ran in random rotatation with
  other mastered verbs.

13
Verbs Format Two

• Often, children are not able to learn the verbs
  in the style of format one. Most commonly,
  difficulty occurs with the second person forms.
• In this case, the child can learn each verb form
  in seperate lessons. For instance, they will
  have a lesson only for first person in vivo verbs
  at the same time they are maintaining mastered
  3rd person forms. Second person forms should
  also be taught seperately.
• When the child is able to label the verbs in
  seperate lessons according to person, the verbs
  then can be systematically introduced one target
  at a time in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person in random
  rotation.

14
Verbs Format Three Visual Cue

• Teaching a visual cue requires the ability to
  read.
• 1. Teach the child to read the pronoun and verb
  in all its forms.
• 2. Teach the child to recite the pronoun and
  verb for the desired conjugations. (1st-3rd
  person plural or singular)
• Have the child label verbs in vivo with use of
  visual cue, if necessary. The visual cue will be
  faded to mastery.

15
Prepositional Phrases

• Receptive prepositional placement labeling is a
  prerequisite for this lesson.
• Teach the child to label with only the
  preposition and generalize across objects and
  locations.
• Teach labeling the preposition and the noun. (Pe
  scaun, Linga cutie)
• Sentence building (adjectives, pronouns)
  Masina rosie este pe scaun, Cubul rosu este pe
  cutie verde.

16
Prepositional Phrases Cont.

• In this lesson other language concepts can be
  introduced. For instance, when to use sunt vs.
  este when labeling the singular or plural.
• Sunt and Este can be taught by presenting
  multiple items in a prepositional placement
  versus one item. You then teach the child to
  discriminate the use of the sentence depending on
  the singular or plural. Masinile sunt pe masa.
  , Masina este pe masa

17
Combining Concepts And Generalization

• Activities and daily routines must be identified
  wherein the child is required to use language
  concepts learned in a structured setting.
• Social games in group settings can be introduced
  which require language usage.
• Scripted conversations can be taught which
  require usage of specific language concepts.
• Incidental teaching opportunities and
  generalization opportunities should be captured
  and contrived throughout the day.