MY COMMUNICATION
P1-3
Encounter
Learning Outcomes



Tolerates contact with familiar adults
Tolerates touch
Tolerate daily routine
Resources
Staff teams to use
resources that are
motivating and
relevant to
individual pupils.
Please feel free to
use the resources
space to annotate.
Teaching Activities/advice/enabling environments
Children need to encounter interactions with familiar adults and routine stimuli in order to help them to make sense of the world.
This will give them the foundations of developing communication. Children may fluctuate between encountering and responding
depending on:
 Health
 Preferred Sensory modality
 Physical position
 Environment
Use Intensive Interaction to encourage responses of all kinds. Join in with whatever the children offer, follow the child’s lead.
Links to Quest – these are for guidance, please see full Quest document.
Encounter
Encounter a variety of stimuli Quest 1 –
Smell, taste, auditory, tactile, olfactory, movements Tac Pac – Sensory Communication
Notices stimuli
Activities should be repeated with inbuilt opportunities for the child to begin to respond
Encounter close contact with a small
number of familiar adults
1
Key worker, familiar nursing staff, key LTS
Use TaSSeLs body signs
Responding
Learning Outcomes




Resources
Staff teams to use
resources that
are motivating
and relevant to
individual pupils.
respond when basic needs and desires are met (eg: stop crying when discomfort is removed or relax when gently rocked)
respond to stimuli presented in on/off pattern (burst-pause) (eg: still, widen eyes, increased movement)
respond to nearby person (eg: still to sound of voice or search with eyes or increased movement)
respond to consistent and predictable social routines (offered in the same order in the same environment on a daily basis) (eg: by
Please feel free to
relaxing, stilling, widening eyes or mouth, increased movement)
use the resources
 respond to their own names (stilling, turning, increased movement)
space to
 respond with consistent positive and negative reactions to a range of social activities (eg: smiling or turning head away)
annotate.
Teaching Activities/advice/enabling environments
Children begin to learn to communicate by reacting to and then responding to stimuli, which include people. Some children continue
in this reactive/ responsive mode. They are not good at developing interaction with other people but do respond to people, games
and songs.
At this early stage, adults need to be as consistent as possible in interpreting the basic needs of the child. The children are reactive to
their environment but not deliberately responsive. At this stage their communication is pre intentional
Start with a small range of stimuli in a darkened and very quiet area to encourage responses to bright moving lights and distinct sounds.
Include people to look at and listen to – wearing things that exaggerate faces and hands
An assessment may be useful to help pinpoint the exact responses of individual children. Use the Affective Communication Assessment
in ‘Communication Before Speech’ (Coupe O’Kane and Goldbart).
Gradually increase the different kinds of stimuli and use all 5 senses and movement if possible. Include plenty of people orientated
activities and different environments.
Use Intensive Interaction to encourage responses of all kinds. Join in with whatever the children offer
Links to Quest – these are for guidance, please see full Quest document. (Remember to record responses on quest hexagon sheets)
Responding
Reacting when basic needs are met (eg:
Provide whole body experiences with the adults eg: rebound, swinging, rocking (Links to
crying stops when being cuddled)
Physical Literacy) and sensory communication activities in close proximity with the adult.
People to meet basic needs
2
Responding to stimuli, especially people
(eg: stilling, eyes widening, looking,
listening)
Quest 2 – reacts to close contact with a
familiar adult
Use a burst-pause pattern of activity to encourage the child to notice the starting and
stopping of the stimulus. Make the start and finish exaggerated.
Flashing objects
Rattles and bells and squeaks
UV torch and white objects
Sparkly wigs and clothes, face paint (for adult), fluorescent gloves
Intensive interaction – accepting an adult close to them
Responding in consistent positive and
negative way (eg: smiling and turning head
away)
Quest 7 – turn takes in a one to one
situation with an adult
Responding differently to different people
Quest 5 – responds to familiar voice or
other personal identifier
Use activities that are people orientated eg: tapping on back, stroking arms and legs,
rocking, cuddling, ‘rough and tumble’, singing, massaging limbs,
Intensive interaction – adult imitating the child’s behaviour
Use of a resonance board or taking turns tapping on a tray
Copying vocalisations and sounds.
Staff should use personal identifiers eg: jewellery as an OOR, perfume.
Responding to own name
(eg: stilling, turning, looking
Quest 8- responds to own name
Use songs and games that include the child’s names in frequent daily routines.
3
Interacting (with others)
Interacting (with others)
 interact with familiar people (eg: smiling, turning, giving eye contact)

Show they can work co-actively with familiar people (eg: join in ‘row the boat’ or allow their hands to be used for eating)

show anticipation of familiar social activities and events (eg: start to rock for ‘row the boat’ or lean forward to be lifted up)

Show they have had enough of a social interaction (eg: by turning away or looking down)

respond with interest in the actions of others close by (eg: make eye contact, turn towards, reaching out, vocalising)

engage actively in familiar social activities and events (eg: join in action songs or hold up arms for coat)

share joint attention in an object or activity (eg: looks at object and at person or looks where person is pointing if object close by)

actively seek out attention from others (eg: vocalise or reach out)

actively play with another person (eg: hand person a toy or pull at the person’s hands)

Lead an interaction game (eg: start ‘Row the boat’ or rolling a ball backwards and forwards)
Teaching Activities/advice/enabling environments
Some children will need to have lots of experience at responding to people before they can interact but others are really interested in
people and will be able to interact at an early stage.
Use Intensive Interaction to encourage children to notice people. Imitate or provide a response to children’s actions and sounds to set
up ‘conversations’. Use burst-pause in little games and songs encourage children to look at you or smile or turn away from you to
vocalisations and communication signals may indicate they do want or don’t want to interact.
Use routines to encourage interaction eg: smiling when being tickled during a changing routine.
4
Resources
Staff teams to use
resources that
are motivating
and relevant to
individual pupils.
Please feel free to
use the resources
space to
annotate.
Responding to familiar sounds and early
words (eg: brrm, woof, mum)
Pupil may engage in an activity for very
brief periods without full physical support.
Terminates interaction with an adult.
Quest 13 – Terminates interaction with an
adult
Pupil tracks sound or visually interesting
toy eg- turns head to stimulus, vocalises.
Show anticipation of familiar activities and
social events.
Quest 17 – anticipates familiar social
routines
Show preference for particular people,
objects and activities
Showing likes and dislikes and preferences
for people
Interacting with familiar people
Use songs and games that include actions and surprises and look for anticipation before
the surprise
Tickle games, ready steady go, lap play type games.
Play interactive games e.g. – row the boat, and look for responses from the pupil to
indicate that they have had enough, e.g.- turning head away, closing eyes, withdrawing
hands.
Musical instruments, sound makers, sound beams, I-Pad, body sounds.
Up, down, left, right.
Action songs, body signs, response to sensory cues and familiar routines.
Use little social games, songs and stories to encourage anticipation. Exaggerated actions
and sounds are useful as are surprises. Use objects that involve people to make them
work eg: blowing bubbles/ feather or devices that exaggerate sounds eg: microphone
Ready steady …..go games
Peek aboo
Vocalise, smile, reach out, turn head in response to familiar adult or activities.
Routine greetings
Hello time
General activities
Play games that involve co-operation and turn-taking. These will initially be directed by the
adult but gradually children become more active eg: ‘Row Your Boat’, dressing up, playing
a drum together
Working co-actively/ turn-taking with
Encourage children to start off the turn-taking by giving them an object and waiting for
another person
them to do something.
Quest 7 – Turn takes in a 1:1 situation with The adult can copy or answer and this can then become a game.
an adult
Use activities across the curriculum to encourage turn-taking eg: music, art, cooking, horse
riding, swimming – anything and everything!
5
Showing anticipation of familiar activities
and games by showing a consistence
response or behaviour to show that they
are anticipating.
Quest 14 Anticipates repetitively
presented stimulus
Engaging actively in interaction games
Quest 13 Terminates interaction with an
adult
Quest 15 Objects to the end of an
interaction
Play interactive games such as ‘your turn, my turn’ or passing an object from one to the
other or taking turns to play an instrument. Use the resonance board to exaggerate the
noise of the objects.
Drama games , Presenting distinct smells, visual stimulus, tactile,
Routine activities e.g mouth care routines.
Tacpac / sensory communication programmes.
‘sensory story’ / Galaxies etc packs
Any activities where pupils focus and show a pleasurable response or increased body
movements e.g. bubbles and become engaged
Sensory communication packs
Look for consistent signals that they are ready to interact or end the interaction e.g.
turning away, closing eyes, withdrawing hands
Use some less favoured activities so that children are encouraged to turn away to indicate
they don't want these – but be sure to respond to the children's indications
Sharing joint attention
Encourage children to look at themselves alongside another person, in the mirror exaggerated faces/ face paint on both people/ wigs and hats.
If a child shows a behaviour that makes you think they wants something e.g. they look at a
nearby toy. Put your face close to that toy to encourage flickers of eye gaze from toy to
adult
Enjoying being with other people (adults
and children)
Actively playing with other people
Vary the people who are available for interaction to encourage children to notice different
people and begin to show preferences
People are the most important resource for Intensive Interaction
All kinds of sensory activities – anything that children really enjoy
Simple songs and rhyme
Musical instruments
Drama games
6
Dressing up clothes
Sparkly wigs, hats and clothes, shiny gloves/ torches and reflective material/ jewellery/
head bands/ flashing headbands
Face paints
mirrors of various kinds Bright and sparkling objects (but using them to draw attention to
people)
Toys that are noisy but need an adult to make them work
Messy art resources that can be shared
Flowers and plants that smell interesting and can be used in an interactive game
Songs and games with surprises at the end
Objects people can blow eg: bubbles, balloons and feathers
Voice changer toy / echo mic
BigMack/ games on SMART - games that are suitable for turn-taking or sharing in some
way
Initiating in interaction games
Aim for one behaviour to mean ‘more’ in a
range of situations
Quest 22 Communicates more
7
Burst and pause during any enjoyable activity and give the pupils chance to show they
want more. (each child’s response time will be different) AND remember to respond
appropriately if they terminate the actions the adult should stop!
You may need to take a toy away from a child but still have it where they can see it to
encourage communication of ‘more’
Communicating
Children should have opportunities to:

Show preferences for objects, activities and events (eg: responding with interest to those they like and turning away from those
they don’t)

indicate ‘more’ and ‘no more’ consistently through their responses to objects, activities and events (eg: looking expectant or
smiling to indicate ‘more’ and pushing away or moving away to indicate ‘no more’)

communicate a choice of object or activity (eg: by making sounds, gestures or pointing, giving picture as in PECs)

attract someone’s attention (eg: by making sounds or gestures)

make simple meaningful gestures (eg: pointing or using simple signs, photographs)

use their voices to join in a ‘conversation’ (eg: babbling)

attempt simple words and phrases in imitation (eg: mumma, woof, all gone, bye bye, more)

use a few words appropriately (eg: more, names, yes, no, mumma – whatever is appropriate for that child)
Learning Outcome
Teaching Activities/advice/enabling environments
Once children are adept at interacting, they start to communicate intentionally. Some
children learn to communicate because they want something but find it hard to
communicate just to enjoy being with another person. Give regular opportunities to
generalise existing skills whilst introducing situations to learn new skills.
8
Resources
Staff teams to
use resources
that are
motivating and
relevant to
individual
pupils.
Please feel free
to use the
resources space
to annotate.
Showing preferences, likes and dislikes,
in an intentional way
Indicating ‘more’ and ‘no more’
Quest 28 – Communicates ‘more’ and
‘no more’ through two different
consistent actions.
Communicating a choice of objects/
activities/ people
Quest 36 – Selects from two or more
items
Use a range of different kinds of stimuli (using all the senses) to enable children to show their
preferences – not yet making a choice. Repeat favoured and non-favoured objects/ activities
so they can practice showing ‘like’ and ‘dislike’.
Use the burst-pause way of working to wait for children to indicate that they want ‘more’ of
something. Be sure to be consistent with the response and give them more of what they like
and take away the things they indicate they don’t like.
Give children choices as soon as they can look from one thing to another. Keep the choices
concrete with the objects fully in view and make sure they ‘ask’ for the choice by pointing/
indicating/ looking at you so that people need to be involved. Use favourite toys and start
with something you know they really like and something they don’t before moving on to a
real choice between two things they like. Play games with hiding things and getting them out
again. Make yourself indispensable to the game!
Tell personal stories/ Bag Books/ story sacks. Use objects rather than pictures at this stage
(unless individual children are particularly interested in pictures). Keep the stories very simple
and based on the things the children show they are really interested in. Use dressing up,
different voices, exaggerated faces, slow bits and fast bits, surprises. Repeat the stories often
and encourage the children to 'ask' for them.
Attracting someone’s attention
Quest 32 – Attracts attention
9
Put a short message on a BigMack and support children to play this to a range of people.
Make the message something that encourages a strong reaction the recipient eg: a loud
raspberry or 'you've got a funny face' or 'tickle me!'
Respond to consistent behaviours that occur when a child is left alone.
Making meaningful gestures eg: point to
something they want
Quest 24 – Purposeful action in
everyday environment
Use sabotage to create situations where children have to ‘ask’ to get what they want eg: put
the cups on a high shelf or give them a cup with nothing in it. Start with things in view but
when they understand object permanence put favourite toys in places where they have to ask
you to retrieve them. For wheelchair users, encourage eye pointing or gesturing or even
Makaton signs if they can manage.
If children can move independently then encourage them to move towards you as you call
them. Play a hiding game with a scarf over your face or hold out a favourite toy. Put things in
containers
need help
to get into.
Vocalising and making a range of sounds clear
Play with
sounds.they
Encourage
vocalising
to accompany gesture. Imitate any sounds the
children make. Have a conversation with their sounds. Introduce new sounds with
exaggerated faces. Vary the pitch, speed and volume of the sounds you make. Take a sound
the child makes and play with pitch, speed and volume. Use a microphone or anything to
exaggerate the voice.
Record the children's sounds and play them back to them. Add them to favourite music. Put
their own sounds on the BigMack
Sing familiar songs and leave gaps for children to fill it with a sound. If making sounds is not
possible for individual children, then maybe sounds can be recorded on the BigMack.
Toy animals that make animal noises (recordable Sound Box)
Photo albums with button to press for a sound eg: picture of cat with miaow
Personal stories using objects/ smells/ tastes/ sounds
Bag Books/ story sacks
Dressing up clothes
Interactive games and songs
Boxes, bags, containers of various sorts for hiding things
Talking Tom App
The child will need to be in a good position to support breath control. Work in the
hydrotherapy pool can help some children
10
Imitating sounds and early words/
phrases
11
Play games with different animal, vehicle, body sounds, sound makers - encouraging imitation
and generally joining in eg: put out the car mat and drive the cars round whilst making brrm,
brrm sounds. Have car crashes with loud noises. Hide soft animals in bags and make animal
noises as they are pulled out of the bag
Make personal sound books (Talking Photo Albums) (if child understands very simple photos)
soundmakers eg: bike bell, telephone, pots and pans to bang, bubble wrap to pop, ball to
bounce, water to swish, toy train or zapping dog on switch
soft animals, toy cars and road mat, train set, farm animals, pictures and personal books of
animals and vehicles (very simple – large single image on plain background)
work (use them for turn-taking)
talking photo album, personal books, microphone and echo box
noisy toys on a switches or that require pressing a button to make them
IWB programmes based on sounds
Websites eg: Poisson Rouge www.poissonrouge.com/bowl.php
Priory Woods games
www.priorywoods.middlesborough.sch.uk
Check the Map (this has links to lots of possible sites)
www.checkthemap.org/links/fun_sites Remember to use the sites for communication/ turntaking/ sounds/ early words
Flo Longhorn's books have lots of ideas for communicating
Use programmes on IWB where sounds are the most important feature. Take turns with the
children in imitating the sounds
Listen for any sounds that are actual words or 'proto-words' (approximations of words or
personalised words) and repeat them often in routines and games.
Favourite objects and activities, Art activities
Musical instruments
Swimming
Eating and drinking
Oromotor & sound activities – see ‘Mouth Madness oral motor activities for children’ by
Catherine Orr
SALT advice
Babbling sounds – mmm,bbb, nnn, ppp,ttt,ddd ( 6 sounds common to all languages)
Ensure a good position– discourage extension so that children can get lip closure.
Appendix 1 Listening progress profile
Children who do not respond to sounds should experience vibration. Try lying them on the harp bed and using soft beater on the drum part, use the finger
harp on placed in their chest or back (try this yourself first so they you know what they are experiencing)
Behaviours / skills in the profile are not in a developmental sequence and appropriate targets should be discussed with the support teachers for HI
HI advisory teachers will assist in setting an appropriate target for individual pupils in conjunction with class staff.
Behaviour / skills
Response to environmental sounds
Response to drum (elicited)
Response to musical instruments (elicited)
Response to voice (elicited)
Response to voice (Spontaneous)
Discrimination between 2 different instruments
Discrimination between loud/quiet/drum
Discrimination between single / repeated drum
Identification of environmental sounds
12
Accepted responses
Any awareness of environmental sounds shown by
spontaneous behavioural response
A behavioural response to loud drum; elicited in play
format e.g. emerging from playhouse on sound of drum
A behavioural response to at least 2 different musical
instruments ; maracas, bells, tambourine etc e.g. child rolls
ball at skittles in response to sound
The child performs a task on the spoken signal for example
‘go’ or ‘boo’ with the voice at conversational sound level
Reactions to voice in stories, singing, games formats have
been observed
The ability to discriminate (without being able to watch
when the sound is made) between 2 different musical
instruments
The ability to discriminate between loud and quite drums
for example by pointing to appropriate picture or imitating
sound
Again pictures may be used to denote a drum being played
once or several times, and the child indicates by pointing at
the picture. Alternatively the child may be given a drum of
his own and imitate the sound being made by the teacher
out of sight.
Record which environmental sounds the child has been
observed to identify by sounds alone
Response to oo
Response to ahh
Response to ee
Response to sh
Response to ss
Discrimination between long short speech sounds
Discrimination between single speech sounds and repeated speech sounds
The child can discriminate for example between a long
baaa or a long ssss and a short ssss in a game
The child can discriminate for example between a large toy
dog giving a loud woof woof and the toy puppy giving a
quiet woof woof
Discrimination between loud / quite speech sounds
Discrimination between 2 of ling’s 5 sounds (oo /ah / ee / sh / ss
Discrimination between all of Ling’s 5 sounds
Discrimination between 2 family names of different syllabic length
Identification of own name in quiet
Appendix 2
Common first words – a pupil can use sign, symbol or verbal means to indicate understanding of a word
Nouns
Nouns
Nouns
Nouns
Nouns
Verbs
Verbs
Verbs
baby
Bag
doll
Tree
Chair
Brush
Run
make
Daddy
Coat
Pram
Apple
house
Clap
Sit
Play
Mummy
Dress
Swing
Biscuit
Table
Cook
Sleep
Put
Man
Hat
Teddy
Dinner
Clock
Cry
Stand
Want
Eyes
pants
Book
Spoon
Brush
Cut
throw
Get
Feet
Shoes
Box
sweets
Soap
Drink
Walk
Hair
Socks
Paper
Cake
Tap
Dry
Wash
Hands
Trousers
Pencil
Cup
Towel
Eat
Come
mouth
Ball
Bird
Drink
Door
Hit
Find
Nose
Bike
cat
Milk
plate
Jump
Give
Toes
Bricks
Dog
Juice
Kick
Look
Tummy
Bus
Duck
Water
Push
Like
Teeth
Car
Flower
Bed
Read
Love
13
Other words
Big
Dirty
Hot
Wet
Down
In
On
Up
Gone
More
Yes
No