Yes, I have a student who has really challenged me.  Student is 15 years old and is nonverbal.  Student is being serviced in a tier three class. This student is hearing impaired (wears hearing aids for amplification) Records state she has apraxia.  I’ve attempted to gain joint attention.  Student requires lots and lots and lots of prompting, but may still not respond nor activate a communication device.

Goals: Student is to

a.       correctly use two new predetermined picture symbol/core communication words or phrases per week using an augmentative communication system

b.      initiate/respond to  a variety of communication exchanges with no more than 4 cues (verbal, gestural, visual, physical)

c.       after hearing a reading selection, student will choose the correct answers from a field of visuals to basic wh- questions (using noun, verbs, and adjectives)

These goals are too vague to make progress on…

• Break them into smaller, measurable skills

Goals I’d Work On:

a.  When prompted by an adult after showing interest in an item (i.e. adult sees she is interested and says “use your talker”), Student will use her AAC system to request the item of interest on 4 of 5 observed opportunities.

b. When an adult initiates a greeting, Student will use an appropriate greeting response (i.e. “hello”) using her AAC system with no more than 4 cues (verbal, gestural, visual) as needed on 4 of 5 observed opportunities.

c. Student will answer basic “who” questions by pointing to the photo of the correct person in a field of 3 photos when asked about common every-day occurrences (like “who brings you to school”) on 4 of 5 observed opportunities.

How to Work on Them:

a. during snack time, when the child indicates she wants a snack (reaches, cries, looks at snack), give her the prompt to use her talker and then help show her where the button is.  Fade back your prompts

b. Whenever you see the child, greet her with “hello” and then use multiple prompts to get her to push “hello” in response.  Train others to do the same

c. Get pics of common people in the child’s life and come up with a few questions that have reliable answers (like “who brings you to school”, “who is your teacher”, “who is your mom”, etc.).  Place three pictures in front of the child and ask her the question, then help her point to the correct person.  Then, reward with a highly motivating object