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 isn’t 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 doesn’t 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 it’s 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.