Name of teaching material
Communication board self-made product
*The description appears by hovering the cursor over the image.
| Target |
・Children who can understand what is intended in picture and photo cards ・Children who can choose the card that expresses their thoughts or feelings from among many alternatives (picture and photo cards) ・Children who have become somewhat aware of other people ・Children who are at the stage where they want to expand from an one-on-one relationship with a teacher to interaction with other children Elementary division |
|---|---|
| Disability category | mentally challenged autism emotional disturbance |
| Teaching units / Applicable scenes | activities for independent living instruction for living skills |
| Specific purposes |
・To enable children to think for themselves and become aware of their own feelings ・To enable them to tell others about their thoughts and feelings ・To thus enable children to do the activities they want to do ・In addition, to have the children experience self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment (e.g. “I was understood by others” and “I had fun.”) ・To promote communication |
| Considerations for disability characteristics |
・The place where the cards are to be presented and the procedures for doing so need to be well structured. (What has to be done must be understood at a glance.) ・Activities that match the child’s interests and are appropriate to the child’s physical movements need to be selected and presented. ・Change the amount of words that need to be used by the children according to the reality of each child. |
| Expected effects and results |
・Because picture and photo cards were used, all of the children were able to use this teaching material irrespective of whether they spoke or not. ・Because it was visually presented, it was fairly easy to understand what the child wanted to say and what he/she had said. ・By working together on the same activity, we were able to use the same teaching material despite differences in the children’s reality (i.e. in the children’s level of understanding of the required process and the children’s ability to choose or to talk). ・Even when a child forgot the content of his/her own presentation, or a friend’s presentation, the child was able to find out what it was by looking at the board. |
| How to use |
1. On a whiteboard, the teacher places each child’s own board and the necessary cards in such a way that is easy for the children to understand the activity and how to use the materials. 2. The child takes his/her own board from the teacher’s whiteboard, chooses the cards he/she wants from the whiteboard, and puts them on his/her own board. 3. The child looks at his/her board, tries to show the board to friends, etc. 4. The child tells others what he/she wants to do; invites others to do something; and briefly expresses his/her thoughts and many other things by showing his/her board, pointing at a picture card, explaining with words, and so on. The teacher provides help as needed. 5. When the presentation is finished, the completed board is returned to the whiteboard. |
| Related teaching materials and information |
○ Because information is visually presented, the teaching material is suited to children with intellectual disability. In addition, because the size of each board and card can be adjusted, it may also be applicable to physically challenged children who have the ability to choose but have difficulties (in physical movement, speech, etc.) expressing their choices. ○ Introducing an alternative card with “No” written on it might increase the child’s interaction with teachers and increase the amounts of thoughts and desires expressed by young children and older children. ○ In the case of children with visual impairment, pictures and photos cannot be used. However, Braille cards can be used in the same manner with children who need word segmentation skills. In this case, they can be used in the following activity: The child chooses Braille cards → arranges the cards → begins to understand the fun in sentences, the need for word segmentation, and the language itself, and starts to interact with other children. ○ In the case of children who are deaf and intellectual disability, the teaching material may be useful in teaching them patterns of grammar by including letters. The illustrations for the teaching material were taken from Visual Symbols for Easy Communication: 1000 useful symbols that help the daily lives of the challenged (with CD-ROM), Empowerment Kenkyujo. |
| Useful for other students |
- Informant Special Needs Education School for Children with Autism,University of Tsukuba
- Keywords Communication, picture card, photo card, and interaction
- Created 2016-11-11 11:48:46
- Updated 2024-01-10 17:39:00