Sunday, February 1, 2015
Blog #1- Welcome!
Welcome to Special Education 519. Please take a few moments to add a post sharing with your classmates your experience (s) with speech and language disorders.Also, take an opportunity to be an observer of nonverbal communication this week. Look carefully! What do you see? Can you find any recurrent gestures and/or facial expressions? What do they mean? Also watch for any misunderstandings caused by nonverbal communication. Feel free to comment on your fellow classmates posts as well. My master's degree is in Hearing Impairments so I took several classes in teaching speech and language and understand that speech and language disorders are an integral part of teaching hearing impaired children as well as children with many other disabilities. I taught first grade deaf children at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind for five of the best years of my life. I hope that I can prepare all of you to understand and use speech and language terminology and methodology since it will be an important part of your special education career.
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Prior to becoming a physical education teacher, I was an aide in a special needs room. This classroom had a wide variety of students with disabilities. As far as speech and language disorders, I would assist the speech pathologist with social groups and different story centers. During this time, we had students that communicated nonverbally by using their devices, holding up picture cards, or simply responded to the question by pointing. This class also had students that had difficulty with the loud/softness of their voice, shakiness in their voice, slow processing, and echolalia.
ReplyDeleteThis week I observed many different gestures and facial expressions. With my younger students I observed the different ways they signal that they need to use the bathroom (sign language, physically holding themselves, or dancing around). Another gesture I observed was arms folded. This demonstrated to me that the student was not happy with someone or something in the class. A facial expression that I noticed was scowling. When I witnessed a student scowling it meant the student was unhappy. The last facial expression I noticed was raising your eyebrows. I actually caught myself giving this expression while waiting for my students to get on task. I think nonverbal communication can mean different things depending on the situation. For instance, maybe I have the music on and the child is simply dancing to the song instead of signaling that they need to use the bathroom. Possibly the child has their arms folded because they are cold. It was interesting to pay attention to all the different nonverbal communication that goes on throughout the school day.
Great examples of a number of ways nonverbal communication is used, especially by students with special needs.
ReplyDeleteAs a Kindergarten teacher, I have seen many different types of speech issues. Some have been developmental, which in our building, these students might have some RTI speech 15 minutes a week. Some issues required evaluations which, then allowed them to have an IEP and receive more minutes per week. I see a lot of receptive and expressive language issues as well. As I was observing non-verbal communications around the building, I noticed a lot of hand gestures, facial expressions, physical whole body movement to get ideas across. These types of communication were easier to understand than one non-verbal type I experienced which was a low tone lip movement way to communicate. I could not understand most of what the other person was trying to convey to me. It was frustrating and did require an extended amount of processing time. It is amazing what we do not understand when spoken language is not audible and we have to rely on watching lip movement as well as trying to figure out the content in which one is trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteSo true how frustrating on both ends it can be when a message sent is not accurately received.
ReplyDeleteMy middle son, Adam had speech therapy during part of kindergarten until the beginning of first grade. There were a couple of sounds that he struggled with, but those were easily corrected by his SLP. Being a paraeducator with students with special needs, most of the students I work with have minutes in their IEP with our SLP. There are a lot of non-verbal types of communication I see at school. Most days I see students scowling, hitting their heads on the desk, putting their heads down, and looking at the clock. Some of these instances have simple explanations, such as seeing how many more minutes until gym class. Others, such as the head banging usually require more digging to see what is happening. Clearly frustration is being conveyed, but it is not always clear where that frustration comes from.
ReplyDeleteSuch a good point- we may see the frustration but now know it's source.
DeleteI teach first grade and I have and had students with speech IEP's. I also have had to refer students for speech. Many times the students test and they are developmental for their age. The speech path would give me exercises and activities for the students to practice in the classroom. I also work for a special needs organization and many of the participants have speech impairments. I have worked with individuals using a picture exchange communication program and individuals who use a talking device.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I see nonverbal communication everyday and I use it myself. If i want a student to correct their behavior I will give them the "look" and they immediately correct their behavior and look at me to confirm they corrected their behavior. I will either give them a head nod, thumbs up, or a smile. They know they are corrected. This week at school we were working on a snowman project. I observed some nonverbal behavior of students sharing just by holding a red marker to the student and giving them the questioning look with out talking. They would either nod their head yes or no. They would wave a student over to have them look at their snowman. I would see the concentration on the students faces with cutting and gluing. They were tuning all other noise out. Some students were not as focused and they would spin their scissors on their desk or tap their pencil or marker. A tap of the shoulder would redirect them to get back to work. It is interesting to see the nonverbal communication and behavior the young students pick up on from myself and their peers.
Oh yes..."the look!"
DeleteI work through the southwest cook county cooperative for special education. The cooperative offers a variety of services/different programs such as; deaf and hard of hearing program, social/emotional programs, destiny (students with physical/significant cognitive delays), a communication development program and more! I specifically work in the communication development program. In this program all students have a communication deficit that is too severe for them to be placed in a general education setting at this time. The disabilities students in my classroom range primarily from students on the autism spectrum to students with social/emotional disorders. In my classroom, we teach expected behaviors inside and outside the school setting and how to appropriately improve upon their language (primarily expressive and receptive).
ReplyDeleteWe use nonverbals on a daily basis in my classroom as too much language is overwhelming for my students and they cannot process too much language at a time. We use some sign language, PECS (picture exhange communication system), nonverbal cues such as pointing to a class rule that is posted on their desk or modeling a desired behavior without the use of verbal (i.e. raising your hand). The use of nonverbals in my classroom at times proves to be an extremely strong form of communication.
I agree that nonverbal communication can be extremely powerful.
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ReplyDeleteLast year I attended all IEP meetings to talk about the student’s transition plan. While at the meetings, I was able to hear and learn about speech and language disorders. It seems, at the high school level, although there are times the student is still able to “correct” their speech and/or language disability, most of the time goals focus around alternative methods to use. For example, if a student struggles with a specific letter sound, and people have a hard time understanding them, the goal would focus on finding alternative words to use in place of the word they are struggling to say. Another example would be, if the student had issues with auditory processing, he or she should focus on advocating for him or herself by asking for directions in written form. I am excited to learn about methods to help students with speech and/or language disabilities, and I am curious to find out how speech paths decide when something may not be “fixable”, and what alternative methods are most appropriate.
In our FALP classroom, there are a few students who are considered nonverbal. They have one-on-one devices, but do not frequently use them unless reminded to do so. The main nonverbal behavior displayed is frustration. When a student in that classroom is having a bad day, or does not understand something, he or she will often shut down. They display their frustration through putting their heads down, and not making eye contact.
I have also noticed that nonverbal communication is typically different for students who are higher intellectually, versus students who have lower intellectual abilities. The FALP classroom is our most server classroom. When students get frustrated, it is often hard for them to explain why even with having a device, because they are unable to spell words that they may be thinking. Students who are higher intellectually use nonverbal communication (rolling of the eyes, crossing of the hands, etc.), but are then able to explain their frustrations through speaking or writing at a later time.
Excellent connection between frustration and nonverbal communication. How can we help these students deal more effectively with true frustration?
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