Gerrard has this habit of doing so. He can be fluent with his speech in topics that engages him, e.g. anything about Dora or Mickeymouse Clubhouse. But having a functional conversation can be difficult for him.
So, the first thing is to get him to listen to people, especially to questions that people ask.
The following is recommended by the speech therapist:
Strategy:
Say a sentence and show picture to Gerrard. Example: Say "The boy is playing with the swing at the playground" and show a picture showing a boy playing with the swing at the playground. Repeat 2x. Then ask questions e.g. 'Who is playing with the swing?', 'Where is the boy playing?'. Each time Gerrard answers, show him the card and check the answers. If the answer is wrong, repeat the sentence again as the answer to the question.
Tips:
- The picture must be as simple as possible, with no other distractors. Example, if the picture is for the sentence shows the sentence "The boy is playing with the swing at the playground", then only show the picture of a boy at the swing, not the scene of the entire playground.
- The questions are the basic 4W-1H (What, Who, When, Where and How) questions.
Gerrard was inconsistent with the answers to the questions. It makes me wonder whether he was not listening, or he did not understand the questions.
After giving feedback to the therapist, she further recommend the following to check on this issue:
Strategy:
Lay out 3 coloured cubes in front of a paper with boxes numbered 1, 2 and 3. Say out a sequence, e.g 'blue, red, green'. Gerrard is to place the coloured cubes in the respective order.
The simple and low-cost setup of the memory game.
Discovery 1:
This is to check Gerrard's attention. To encourage him and to keep track of his answers, I came up with a sticker reward system. Each time he gets a correct answer, he gets a sticker and he is to paste this on a paper. So far, he is good with this. Out of 20 trials, he makes only one mistake, proving that it is not an issue of him not paying attention. I will show the therapist during the next session and will work on how to get him to answer to the question.
Gerrard's results.
I also played this game with Gerlyn. Gosh! She could not place the cubes according to colour properly. For a short while, I thought she had colorblindness. Luckily, it was verified through the memory chess (mentioned in Home Intervention Programme 1) that she just cannot name the colours correctly, as she can match the coloured chess correctly. Luckily these coloured blocks have alphabets on them. So I played with her using sequence of the alphabets.
Discovery 3:
Gerrard and Gerlyn really liked to be praised. Sometimes, I will give them a hi-five, rather than the stickers. And they are actually contented with that. I am glad that they do not need physical rewards. So, for those who have kids at home, have you praised your babes today? And for colleagues, have you praised the students today?
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