Responsive+Interaction

Home Page

NOTES REGARDING RESPONSIVE INTERACTION

A. How do we support child-initiated communication? 1. Follow the child's lead 2. Mirroring the child's action 3. Non-verbal turn-taking and matching (signing "My turn" as you take the toy. They then request a turn) 4. Verbal turn-taking and matching (saying "My turn" as you take the toy. They then request a turn) 5. Talk at the child's level. Many of our students only speak in one or two word sentences. We should be doing the same. 6. Modeling communication during play 7. Expand communication. Example: Student says "car". We follow by saying "Blue car". Child says "Blue car". We say "Big blue car". Child says "Big blue car". We say "Big blue car fast" as we show the car driving fast. B. To balance your turns with the child, respond to every verbal utterance that the child makes. C. Be sure to pause after your response to allow the child to take another turn. D. Talk after the child talks. However, if more than 5 seconds have passed without a verbal or nonverbal behavior from the child, take another turn. E. Mirror the child's actions and then describe the action. (Example: if a child is jumping, then you should jump and say "Jumping". F. Talk in phrases at or just slightly above what the child is able to produce or understand. G. Adults often ask too many questions that require limited or simple responses, such as questions that can be answered with "Yes" or "No". These are not recommended questions to ask. This may result in limited opportunities for the initiation of play and communication. These types of questions do not typically allow for teaching opportunities.

RESPONSIVE INTERACTION, information adapted from Weiss, et al 1985 1. Follow the child's lead (topic, play, joint attention) 2. Balance verbal turn taking 3. Treat nonverbal turns as communicative 4. Contingent imitation of child actions in play 5. Enter into and expand child's play 6. Provide meaningful feedback for communicative behavior 7. Model talk at the target level appropriate to the communicative context 8. Model specific language targets in context 9. Expand child utterances (meaning and lexical expansions at target level and using specific targets) 10. Best when used with children who score at 30-36 months on language assessment

See Milieu Teaching in Natural Language sessions