Reduce your students' reliance on scripted answers and teach them to answer a wide range of what questions like pros.
Autism & PDD Photo Cards Answering WHAT Questions is a unique photo card intervention tool. The 240 cards include therapy-rich instructions you can use in structured tasks or less-structured games. Question forms vary by grammatical features (present progressive, third person singular, and past tense) as well as by descriptive features (prepositions, attributes, and functions).
- Present Progressive (70 cards) — What is she eating?
- Third-Person Singular (34 cards) — What hops?
- Past Tense (34 cards) — What did she bake?
- Prepositions (34 cards) — What is on the bed?
- Attributes (34 cards) — What is big?
- Functions (34 cards) — What do we use for cutting?
Many questions are repeated with differing answers to aid in generalization and reduce scripted responses to a single question. Suggested therapy activities are included on each instruction card to promote generalization.
Each card has an uncluttered, full-color, real-life photo to help your students attend to the visual photo cue as well as the verbal prompts on the back of the card. The verbal prompts guide the student in a gradual, progressive, learning hierarchy that adds additional cues as needed to answer the question. Throughout the activities, a natural way of asking questions is modeled in an effort to teach more natural conversation skills to children with autism spectrum disorder.
Students answer questions to provide information and to maintain conversation. When questions go unanswered, communication breakdowns occur and social reciprocity is severed. By not responding to questions, children with autism spectrum disorder sabotage their social opportunities with peers. End this cycle with this high-value, therapeutically-sound tool.
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- Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) need a systematic approach to understanding questions. This includes teaching a particular question type multiple times with visual and verbal prompting (Zambolin, Fabrizio, & Isley, 2004).
- In order for children with ASD to participate in an integrated classroom with typically-developing peers, children with ASD need to comprehend literacy questions targeted in the language arts curriculum. Teaching children with ASD how question forms affect the answer will assist them in participating in classroom discussions and coursework (Constable, Grossi, Moniz, & Ryan, 2013).
- Therapy aimed at fostering the development of age-appropriate communication skills and ability-appropriate language comprehension and language use will improve the child's level of functioning (Taylor-Goh, 2005).
- Based on the core challenges of individuals with ASD, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) suggests intervention goals that focus on expanding word knowledge and use to include action words and more complex grammar (ASHA, 2006).
Autism & PDD Photo Cards Answering WHAT Questions incorporates these principles and is also based on expert professional practice.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). (2006). Guidelines for speech-language pathologists in diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of autism spectrum disorders across the life span. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from www.asha.org/docs/html/gl2006-00049.html
Constable, S., Grossi, B., Moniz, A., & Ryan, L. (2013). Meeting the common core standards for students with autism. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(3), 6-13.
Taylor-Goh, S. (2005). Royal college of speech & language therapists: Clinical guidelines. United Kingdom: Speechmark.
Zambolin, K., Fabrizio, M., & Isley, S. (2004). Teaching a child with autism to answer informational questions using precision teaching. Journal of Precision Teaching and Celebration, 20(1), 22-25.