Why Picture Books?

 

Teaching young children with autism using picture books.

       Using picture books to increase language skills began in the classroom to actively engage students with the following purposes in mind:

1.  To target individual language and learning skills within each verbal operant category 
     as per assessment objectives.

2.  To provide functional exposure to books and early literacy activities.

3.  To provide scripts for teaching play within the natural environment (NET).

4.  To increase social interactions and response opportunities within small group settings.

                                                          

Now let’s apply the verbal operants to picture book instruction…

Mand:   

        When using picture books children can mand for preferred books, mand to turn the page, mand for toys related to the story, mand for missing items doing follow-up activities such as glue, crayons, utensils.  Children can also mand for reinforcers while working 1:1. Before introducing books be sure the child is manding for several reinforcing items through out the day.  Establishing motivating situations in which the child is manding for items, attention, and activities is key to starting an effective VB program.

 

Tact:  

       Picture books with simple illustrations of familiar items lend well to building a tact repertoire.  My packets include photos of all the objects and/or animals in the stories. Start with 3 pictures and build up to the complete set as the child is ready. Introduce the story shortly afterwards and have child tacting the same items in the illustrations.  For school to home carry over I recommend that a list of targeted tacts be given to parents and home therapist to work on as well.  Many household items are targeted in the packet, If You Give A Pig A Pancake.  

  

 Intraverbals:   

       Picture books create opportunities to increase intraverbal repertoires with tacting, repetitive text, and fill-in-the-blank phrases. Intraverbals evolve into increasingly more complex responses to questions around features, functions, categories, actions, characters, events, and sharing information.  An example from the Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything:  “What do you wear on your head?  Yes, a hat. A hat is worn on your ____.”  “Who wore a black hat?  Yes, the scarecrow.  He wore a ____   ____  on his ____.”  It is critical to identify each child’s level of intraverbal responses to implement an individual program.

                                                    

Receptive ID/Listener Responding:   

       Picture book activities with the photo cards help to develop listener skills by discriminating between verbal stimuli when asked to identify one picture over another, and to follow directions to do a selecting or matching task. Can the child correctly identify an item in a variety of pictures or forms? Can the child identify items in an illustration during a story read-a-loud?  Does he begin to anticipate and fill in text?  Can he identify the props that go along with story?

Echoic/Vocal Imitation:  

       Using books with repetitive phrases work well for children that are echoic.  Use their echoic tendency to build the tact repertoire and use the pattern of the text to break the echoing.  Look for books that repeat a word or phrase, or that build on a word or phrase.  An example here is the Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. The lady is followed by pieces of clothing that make sounds. Two shoes go “clomp, clomp”, the shirt goes “shake, shake”, etc.  By the end of the story the kids are filling in the sounds and imitating the actions as they watch the illustrations.  They learn to listen and anticipate the fill-ins. In Draw Me A Star, the key line is the same, but the objects change, so again the kids need to attend to the objects in the illustration and fill-in.  By first learning to name the objects through the photos and pictures, the child is then ready to interact with the story.  Prompt the child to repeat the words as you point to each illustration then fade your vocal prompt but still point to the picture.  Ask a question to the child that can then be prompted by just pointing to the picture.  It may help to guide the child’s hand to point to the picture also. The picture cue helps to direct the child to answer rather than repeat the question.

Motor Imitation:  

       Books are a great way to teach motor actions through the antics of the story characters.  This is then carried over to imitating others in play.  Practice motor imitation during 1:1 instruction and then take it to the natural environment teaching session.  Provide a peer to teach the child using the prompt, “Do this”.  In the story, If You Give A Pig A Pancake, the pig engages in lots of actions that can be mimicked 1:1 during intensive instruction such as “show me dancing”, or “show me eating”.  During play or music again prompt to “show me dancing” and add a stuffed pig toy to dance with.  Then stop and all pretend to be eating pancakes!

Visual Performance:   

       There are many activities related to the theme of a story that develop visual performance skills. Use sets of photos, pictures and sight words for matching, select items from increasing array, select by feature, function, class. Other tasks include:  puzzles, level A readers, sequencing by size, tracing activities, mazes,
file folder games, completing patterns, making words from array of letters.  Include 3D objects for matching objects to pictures. Small toys work well.  Lay the book open and match pictures and small toys to illustrations to further interact with the pages.  This will help with finding items on a page during readings of the story. What is the child’s favorite activity and how can you tie it to the story?  Be creative and make it fun so the child will use more language!  Be mindful of child’s ability level as to not overwhelm him.

                                                           

Reading:  

       Children need to be exposed to words and text to become life-long readers. Non-vocal students may eventually be using augmentative communication devices or computers to communicate and must learn to read and spell. Some children with ASD are hyperlexic.  Do they understanding what is being read? Involve them in activities that check for comprehension.  Turning story scripts to play scenarios is one way to bridge the gap.  Also, retelling the story using the photo cards.  Look for strengths and weaknesses. Is your student better at answering questions that are spoken, pictured, or written? Is your student ready for the keyboard?  Or IPad?  Present stories in a variety of ways. 

 

Math:  

      There are many picture books written with number themes.  Just about any illustration in any children’s story lends itself to a math concept. “Count the ___”, and “How many ___ are there?”  My packets on the Big Red Barn and Does A Kangaroo Have A Mother, Too!  include basic number concept mini-books and cards with set matching 1-10. 

Play Skills:  

      Using props and scripts from story books can give the child access to a play scenario by filling in the sequence of events using familiar language.  Set up a play area to duplicate book setting and objects.  When the child is playing, listen to see if self talk demonstrates increase of verbal behavior with vocabulary from the text. Does the child imitate motor or verbal behavior from a peer playing nearby?  Does the child mand to the peer or respond to mands from the peer to share items?

Small Group Instruction:  

       With story book activities the story has already been introduced during 1:1 instruction by using photo cards, small matching objects, and previewing the illustrations and text.  With 1:1 practice the child can then bridge over to engaging in a similar activity with 2-3 peers, such as turn taking matching photos while hearing the story being read.  Bridge skills learned in the intensive teaching times to small group activity by adding peers and changing setting to a larger table or floor space.  Fade prompts as child learns to observe and imitate peers.  As the child becomes familiar with the group format begin to introduce new verbal and non verbal behaviors with a variety of short activities. By keeping the group size small children have a greater response frequency which is important.  These children have much to learn and need multiple opportunities to practice and acquire new skills.

Hope this helps you generate new ideas!  Remember to make it fun so the children want to come back for more interactions with you!  Keep lots of reinforcers present too!