Visual Supports

How to Teach Critical Communication

Learning new skills is so important for my students!  Requesting "Help" "Break" "Stop" or "Wait" is a huge skill on its own.

This week I want to talk about how I teach Critical skills, and show you some of the visual recourses I use to teach these skills.

Functional Communication

My 5 Tips

1. Help your student to realise when they need to use the break/help card, before they get too frustrated or loose concentration. At the start of any activity, show the student the break card and place the card where they can easily reach it.

2. Point to the break/help card and tell them, “This is your break/help card. You can use it if you need a break.” When your student starts to get frustrated or loose interest, You say “If you are getting upset, use your break card to tell me you need a break/help.” 3.Immediately allow the student to take a break/help from his tasks, or allow the student to move away to the "break area." I found that self regulating visuals on the bottom of the card is a fantastic way of calming your student while on a break. 4. Requesting is an important part of teaching the student to trust and use the visual support, once they are consistently asking for breaks, you may begin to extend the time between the request and the actual break.

5. I added visuals to the bottom of each card in order to redirect the student to what he can do instead, or while using the card and  popped all four cards onto a keyring for easy access!

For more information click here