Motor Planning

(upbeat music) - Hey, y'all. It's Ayo here. Let's talk about motor planning. Think about typing on a computer keyboard. Do you look (laughs) or can you type without having to search for each key one at a time? If you can locate and activate a key easily because it's always in the same spot, you have developed excellent motor planning. But I'm sure it didn't start that way. You needed to learn the actions, practice them over time and make a lot of mistakes, but then apply corrections and it eventually became automatic. Motor planning allows us to know, plan and perform specific tasks or actions in a series to make movement or make something happen. When we're typing, we know our letters, we plan our actions based on their placement, and then peck away to type with some speed and accuracy. And when a student uses motor planning to interact with their AAC device, it works the same way. They learn the words and their meanings, and they plan how to access their location on the device or system, and then they perform the task with reliability and accuracy. Now, just for a moment, imagine typing on this keyboard. This is how keyboards look in France. And having recently used one, I can tell you my motor planning was totally thrown off. The new position of all the keys meant I was back at the learning stage. And to be honest, I struggled with my recall, with my planning and with my performance. When we support students as they use their communication systems, we want to offer a variety of words, and students should have access to new language as the curriculum changes or as their social needs change. But this cannot come at the price of having to learn and relearn word placement and remap motor planning. When you add words, like temporary vocabulary for a lesson or activity or possibly different phrases for new social situations, remember how motor planning plays into mastery. Keep consistency at the front of mind. And when you add fringe vocabulary for a single target lesson or activity, don't rearrange a student's whole system to do so. Otherwise, it's like relearning everything all over again. It stifles motivation. It makes mastering a communication system that much more challenging. I'm Ayo Jones reminding you to stay strong and teach on. (upbeat music)