.Teaching Students with Intensive Communication Needs
 
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June 13, 2007 (class #8)
Topic: Gesture as communication



Class outline:
4:20-4:30 Quick questions and quandaries. Announcements:
  • Don't forget to turn in your key concepts paper. We will try to have those graded by early next week.
  • Don't forget there are reading questions for Mundy & Willoughby due tomorrow.
  • The first draft of your final essay is due on Monday. 
    • Use the information from your reading questions, articles summaries, and your key concept paper to answer the first several questions. 
    • Use the syllabus and class outlines to figure out what might be good resources for the questions we have not touched upon. 
    • You can copy the questions (rather than re-typing them), as well as the references, from the syllabus that is on-line. 
    • Remember that you will grade yourself, so read the grading rubric before you begin.
    • Bring anything that you have done to date on your rough draft to class on Friday -- we will have time to share/work on your drafts in class.
4:30-4:50 Small group activity #1 -- Discuss in small group:
  • Gesture may be one aspect of communication in which comprehension does not precede production. What might be some implications of this for students with severe disabilities, particularly in a classroom setting? 
4:50-5:10 Report out
5:10-5:20 Quick write: What did you learn about the development of gestures that seems important to you as an educator? 
5:20-5:45 Interactive presentation: Deictic and representational gestures
5:45-6:15 Small group activity #2 -- Discuss in small group:
  • When teaching students with severe disabilities, with which disability or culture might it be advantageous to teach gestures, such as pointing and waving, even though a student may be already using multiword utterances? Would there be a particular disability or culture where it would be inappropriate?
6:15-6:20 Minute paper:
  • What was the most important concept you learned in class today?
  • What was the muddiest part of the class?
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Overheads:
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Optional Reading Questions:
Note: All of the readings, required and recommended, can be found on electronic reserves at Zimmerman library. Please contact the instructor for the course password.
Iverson & Thal, 1998
1) What is the purpose of this chapter?
2) Define in your own words deictic and representational gestures.
3) In the discussion about the development of representational gestures (starting on p. 69), the authors discussion the notion of symbols -- that the earliest representational gestures are not symbolic, but that later use of gestures is symbolic. From this discussion, what do you understand about the nature of symbols?
4) What is the importance of gestures and gesture-word combinations in the assessment of language development?
5) Now that you've read this article:
  • what are some new terms for you from this chapter?
  • what seem to be some important concepts in this reading?
  • what new questions do you have?
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Additional Resources:
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Recommended Readings:
Calculator, S. N. (2002). Use of enhanced natural gestures to foster interactions between children with Angelman syndrome and their parents [Electronic version]. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11, 340-355.
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Chan, J. B., & Iacono, T. (2001). Gesture and word production in children with down syndrome. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 17(2), 73-87.
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Julia Scherba de Valenzuela, Ph.D.
Last updated: June 11, 2007