Making Communication Meaningful

As "communication specialists" we often diagnose and treat children and adults with severe communication disorders. However, in treatment, we often assume this "illusion" that George Bernard Shaw described. Many clients struggle with verbal communication through various sensory barriers to communication. As treatment specialists, teachers, and parents, how we address meaningful communication is dependent upon how we understand and perceive the frustration of the client when expressive verbal communication is not easily accessed.

The emotional environment of the treatment sessions, classroom, or home is critical in creating meaningful communication strategies. Perception of spoken language and then assigning appropriate meaning is difficult for many client/children with sensory needs. Sifting through the sensory "distractions" often creates stress for the child, which is exhibited in numerous ways.  Most often, this stress is exhibited through "attention-getting" behaviors.


Our first goal is to diagnose what the child is communicating through these attention-getting behaviors. Our next goal is to assign meaning to these behaviors. Finally, therapeutic strategies to achieve meaningful communication are designed around these diagnostic observations. Choice of topic assists the child to assign meaning through experiential learning. For example, if a child is growing up in today’s world, how could he/she "experience" the animal "dinosaur"? A better choice of "animal" experience might be pets, farm animals, or animals we see at the zoo, in the mountains, in the river, etc.  The choices must come from the child’s immediate environment.


Meaningful vocabulary comes from everyday life and the experiences life brings to the child. Brain-based research suggests that experiences are how the brain assigns meaning, and therefore pays attention to the meaning, with an end result of committing it to memory. The final stage is recalling the information based upon the real life experiences, the individual perceptions of the child and the corresponding responses to these perceptions.


Setting the emotional "stage" for learning requires the adults in the child’s life to provide calm, de-cluttered learning spaces, choices, movement, preparation for transitions within the activity, and adequate time for learning new skills. Immersion in a real-life, experiential education process allows the brain to perceive, access, retain, and use the information gained in the activities. Providing attention to the foundations for learning assists the child to develop meaningful communication.


The following foundation provided for learning supports structuring and implementing highly effective learning experiences:

• Adequate Time: Young children and children with auditory processing disorders need time to process verbal directions. Time to complete their individual learning tasks will vary from client to client. Adequate time is individualized to support the learning.
• Meaningful Content: Necessary vocabulary aids communication, supports to sensory integration, and usefulness of the learning experience.
• Choices: Pre-selected activities to support communication and language learning.
• Immediate Feedback: May be sensory, motor break, verbal, snacks, charts. Will ALWAYS need to be individualized to the learning process. Is considered by many researchers to be the single most important factor for learning.
• Enriched Learning Environment/Experiential Learning:  Multiple Intelligence experiences, materials specific to learning processes, involving all the senses.
• Absence of Threat: The emotional environment to support learning must be positive, set intentions of learning, and reassure all clients that they are protected by the therapist in the session. For children with sensory needs, the space/schedule for a break.
• Movement to Enhance Learning: BrainGym™, Sensory Motor Activities, Motor-Music Experiences of learning.
• Collaboration: Learning to work with others: sharing, communicating, turn-taking skills.
• Mastery/application: Spontaneous usage of linguistic skills in appropriate situations, ability to help another "learner", generalization of communication skills.

Bobbie Beckmann
Speech Pathology Services of East Tennessee, LLC
MA, CCC, SLP, Founder & President

Ft. Craig School of Dynamic Learning

The closing of Ft.Craig School of Dynamic Learning was a sad day for me last Wednesday. Serving Maryville City Schools by being on the Planning Team in 1994-95 school year was an honor and a privilege. I was re-educated into some best practices in education that relied heavily upon brain-based research in the field of learning. Being introduced to Multiple-Intelligence Theory of Teaching Howard Gardner; Learning about molecules of learning and emotion from Dr. Candice Pert, MD, NIH Department of Research, Meeting with Dr. Carla  author of “Smart Moves: Why All Learning is not in Your Head”, and Kovalik and Associates in integrating this “teacher” learning into activities to promote learning.  We were a significant part of the University of Tennessee, College of Education, Department of Teacher Education and Theory both for placement of Interns completing their Master’s Degree; we were a part of teaching/supervising these new “teachers” and “speech-language pathologists".


This new information was like being in Graduate School again. In-depth study of the neurological system, the emotional systems, the sensory system, increasing memory skills was appealing to me as a Speech-Language Pathologist and as an Early Childhood Educator. Holding both certifications in the educational system was important to plan programs that became the FCSDL model of experiential learning. Each child had an individual learning plan. Each child was allowed time to learn through the Multiple Intelligence framework of activity planning that fit into the deeper learning. For the preschool population of FCSDL, our staff had the responsibility to prepare 3 and 4 year olds for Kindergarten based upon the expectations outlined by numerous researchers of Kindergarten readiness. Of these 40 preschool children, 10 were diagnosed with a communication disorder, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, ADHS, Language Disorder, or OCD.

The first difference of FCSDL that was rooted in brain-based learning was the physical space. The learning environments were designed to promote learning by making the room and enticing place for learning to occur. Water ponds, fountains and live pets were in each classroom. Each child was encouraged to drink water while learning, a heavily researched fact of working and learning. Simple things learned and viewed as small but important for all learners was adopted by the staff to model for children and parents. 

Some of these simple principles I still use in working primarily with children who have been diagnosed with Autism or sensory processing disorders. These tried, tested, researched methods are as follows:


1. BrainGym™: Many people reject this very simple way of interjecting bodily kinesthetics into learning. However, 5 minutes of BrainGym™ can greatly impact emotion and attention, the 2 precursors to learning. This follows the E-A-L-M model for learning. In this model, Emotion drives Attention, Attention drives Learning, Learning drives Mastery, and Mastery is when you can teach someone else.


2. Defined learning space for independent exploration of the learning materials related to classroom learning. This space observation was conducted once a week to decrease clutter in the learning environments, promote child organizational skills around learning, learning spaces had lamp lights, rugs, and comfortable spaces to learn and discuss learning.


3. In order to give the brain the repetitive, immersion experiences, materials were selected and used differently in the preschool classes. Each day, the book of the week was read to the groups of 20 in a predictable order so the children could experience the story, “read” the story from the pictures and their recall as a group, act out the story line; participate in group “what if?”  (What if Brown Bear Brown Bear had to wear glasses but no one knew!! What would he see with the glasses; what would he see without the glasses) and other visualization games to establish the story line. By the fifth day, each child recalled as much of the story in order with guidance from the group to retell the entire story. This type of learning established an in-depth teaching model of rhyming words; fill in the blanks, vocabulary development, listening attention, etc. Book selection was coordinated with the expectations of the Kindergarten program in the school.


4. Positive, Positive, Positive in responding to children. We as teachers made a commitment to speak to each child in a positive manner. We discussed life skills; what they were, what they looked like, how to “walk the talk” or “walk the walk”. Learning was fun, immediately rewarded, and a positive attitude around learning was established and maintained with each student.


5. Choices were provided around the learning of each student. Reading materials were promoted through several learning stations. Math problems were introduced as word problems. Legos were used for building towers of various sizes, and comparing and contrasting towers.


6. Adequate time was allowed as the morning learning schedule was flexible.


7. Weekly newsletters gave parents information regarding brain-based learning principles, theme of week, book of week, vocabulary targeted, and activities to do at home.


My role as a speech-language pathologist and Pre-Kindergarten Teacher allowed me to plan individual programs to encourage the learning of each child in large classroom groups (20) and small learning groups (4) with experiential learning as the underlying structure for learning.


As of today, the therapists of Speech Pathology Services of East Tennessee, LLC employ these same teaching techniques that are based in research. As a group of medically based rehabilitation therapists, we must employ scientifically researched techniques of teaching children with mild, moderate and very severe communication problems. The majority of our clients make good gains in communication, either verbal, signed, gestured, or uses of Alternative Augmentative Communication; and, as communication practitioners, we strive to improve our own communication skills within ourselves, our teams, our school communication “partners”, and our TNCARE partners in bringing medical rehabilitation services to school-aged children and their families.


Bobbie Beckmann
Speech Pathology Services of East Tennessee, LLC
MA, CCC, SLP, Founder & President