Real World Language

With the holidays upon us there will most likely be many opportunities for our children to go and see places and things that they do not experience every day. The novelty of these events may present good opportunities to practice recalling and retelling. The following procedure can be implemented as often as you would like.

Real World Language

Goal of the Real World Language Program
The purpose of this program is to help your child generalize current skills as well as previously acquired skills outside of therapy and to recall and retell events in the order they occurred immediately following the trip as well as after a time delay...

Procedure

● Parents/Parent/instructors choose a location.

● Parents/Parent/instructors generate a few standard questions to be asked after the outing (e.g., where did we go? How did we get there? Did (name) come with us? Etc.)

● Upon returning to the house the parent/instructor can then add a few “trip specific questions.”

● Parents/instructors should take approximately two to three minutes telling the child what they are going to do and where they are going to go. (This conversation may continue on the car ride or the walk to the selected location.)

● Upon arrival and during the visit to the selected location, Parents/instructors should engage the child appropriately without asking any questions that may pertain specifically to the questions that were formulated prior to leaving.

● Upon returning to the child’s house, the Parents/instructors should bring the child to a table and chairs and ask the questions that were compiled DURING THE OUTING.

Recall and Retell

It is recommended that the adult taking the child out bring a digital camera in order to collect three or four pictures of a few key events that occurred during the outing. It may prove beneficial to use the pictures as a prompt. First, hand the child the pictures and say, “Put the pictures in order.”  Provide assistance as needed. Once he/she has put the pictures in the correct order, say, “Tell me about our trip to the (location).”  The child will use whatever functional communication system that he/she is most fluent with; prompt as needed. Once the child has stated the key components of the trip to the adult, wait approximately five minutes and have him retell the story (preferably) to a different adult.  If another adult is not available then he can retell the events of the outing to the person working with him. 

● Please note that this step would be implemented after the child has responded to questions about the trip.

Good luck!

Ray Cepeda, Executive Director

The Brooklyn Autism Center