(bright music) - Hey, y'all, it's Ayo here. Let's talk about words. As staff, when we're working with students who are non-verbal or minimally verbal or who just struggle with communication, we rely on visuals, and we should. Visuals are great tools to help us communicate with one another in the classroom.
There's just one thing to remember. As you and your team reflect on how you support students to develop better social communication, words matter. Well, huh, you probably already knew that, so let me be more specific. When you provide students with visuals to communicate, think about if they are really for the student or if they're really for the staff.
Here's an example of a communication system I found a student using in the classroom during a classroom visit. As you can see, stop, work, sit, clean up, look, and quiet. These are great words to have access to, but these are words for the staff, they are not words for the students. When we target language skills for students who are working on developing a reliable communication system, that's predicated on having access to words and to models who show how and when and why to use those words.
Visuals like this one are not for those things. These communication icons are for staff members to set expectations and share directions with students in a way that they understand, and that's great, but they may also choose to use a student's communication system to share that information and to be a better model. These visuals are mobile, easy to access and simple to understand, which makes them so valuable in the classroom and while supporting students. But to the point here, it's always important to remember the function of the communication.
Your purposes for language are starkly different than the purposes for student communication and that means you may use different visuals and systems to communicate effectively. So reflect on that and consider the purpose or function as you incorporate communication systems into the classroom. I'm Ayo Jones, reminding you to stay strong and teach on. (bright music)
