Let’s Talk! Quiz

1. When you are ready to work on saying words, which would be a good choice? Three words that she understands and that are important in her life Twenty words that she understands and that are important in her life. Three words that she has never heard before Three animals

The correct answer is A. Twenty words is probably too many to start with – this will be confusing. It will be much easier to learn to say three words that she is already familiar with, understands well, and are important in her life. Once she learns the first three words, you will add another and then another, etc. Finally, three animals might be confusing because she might think of them as similar. It will be easier to work on three words from different categories, and things that are important and familiar; for example, juice, dog, and car.

2. When you are ready to work on saying words, which three words might be a good choice? cat, dog, rabbit egg, cheese, cheerios nose, chin, hair dog, car, banana

The correct answer is D. It’s best to start with three very different words, from different categories, so they will be easy to tell apart.

3. Let’s say you hold up a picture of a shoe, ask your child, “What is it?” but your child does not name it. Which two of these choices would be good prompts to try? Tell her to, “Say Shoe” while you are holding up the picture of the shoe. Tell her to, “Say sh” while you are holding up the picture of the shoe. Press the child’s lips into position for making the ‘sh’ sound. Point to her shoe

The correct answers are A. and B. If your child can say ‘shoe’ just from the partial prompt of ‘sh’, that’s great! Praise her enthusiastically and give her a special treat if you think your praise is not enough reinforcement. If she needs the full prompt of hearing you say ‘shoe’, that’s fine, you should still praise and reinforce her for a great effort, even if she needed the prompt. Although some speech therapists can help children make sounds by shaping their lips, it’s probably not a good idea for parents to try. Children might find it unpleasant and confusing. And D. is not correct because the purpose of a prompt is to help the child give a good response so that the response can then be reinforced. If your child has not said that word before, or not many times, you should give her a prompt that will help her to say the word.

True or False: When you are teaching your child to name simple words, it is best to use a predictable order, like: shoe, cup, apple, shoe, cup, apple, shoe, cup, apple, so that your child will find it easy to be successful.

The correct answer is FALSE. If you use a predictable order, your child can be correct and get reinforced for just saying these words in order; she may not have actually learned which label goes with which picture.

True or False: Once your child has learned to say a new word correctly, you can assume that she doesn’t need to practice it any more.

The correct answer is FALSE. Children will forget many skills unless they are practiced, and saying new words is no different. Once your child has learned to say a new word, give her a chance to practice it a few times a day until you are sure that it is very easy for her to think of it and to say it. Also, you can’t assume that once she knows that her green sippy juice cup is a ‘cup’ that she will also know that your coffee cup or grandma’s mug for tea is also a cup. So you’ll need to give her practice with all different kinds of cups until you are sure she has the general idea of a ‘cup’.

True or False: Your child has learned to say the names for several shapes. She can say circle, square, triangle and oval. She is now working on adding another new shape, ‘rectangle’. She’s doing well with her recently acquired shape, oval, but not surprisingly, begins to confuse triangle and rectangle. You should say something neutral, like “Good try” or “Try again” or “That was so close!” and then quickly re-present the same shape and immediately prompt the next trial to be sure she’ll get it right, fading the prompts gradually over time.

The correct answer is TRUE. This kind of error is quite common. With any error, it’s important to be sure your child repeats the error as few times as possible. For this reason, you should provide a neutral response to end the trial, quickly present the next trial, and then prompt her immediately before she has a chance to repeat the error. Then you can fade your prompts gradually over time.

7. You want to start working on teaching your child to say some body parts. Which would be a good way to start? Touch her nose, say “what body part is this” and prompt by saying ‘nose’ if needed. Put out pictures of a nose, an eye, a chin, and a knee and touch the nose picture and say “what body part is this?” Touch her shin and say “what body part is this?” and prompt by saying ‘shin’ if needed. Hold up a shoe and say ‘what body part does this go on?’ and prompt by saying ‘foot’ if needed

The correct answer is A. You are starting by touching something on her own body, and using a body part that young children usually learn as one of their first body parts, providing a prompt if needed. B is probably going to be confusing because a picture of a body part separate from the rest of the body can be difficult for a young child to recognize. C is incorrect because “shin” is not a very common word and she probably will not have heard adults using it. Of course, you could touch her shin and prompt her to say ‘leg’. The idea of having her say foot when you hold up a shoe and ask where it goes is much more advanced than just labeling the body part.  It would be best to wait until she knows more body parts and clothing names, and also knows how to sort things that “belong together” before working on this.

True or False: When you want to teach your child to produce a simple sentence, like, “Mommy is eating,” or “Mommy is eating pizza,” you want to be sure that your child can say most or all of the words in the sentence correctly, like ‘Mommy’, ‘eating’, and ‘pizza’.

The correct answer is TRUE. You don’t want to try to build sentences out of unfamiliar parts. It is hard enough to put words together when each word is familiar, so be sure you work on sentences with words that your child has learned very well.

True or False: If you are teaching your child to label a familiar object, such as an apple, and she learns it very well, you should stick with the same picture (or the same object) so that the child does not get confused.

The correct answer is FALSE. You really don’t want your child to correctly label only one specific apple. Apples come in different colors and have slightly different shapes.  Once she has learned to label one picture of an apple, you want to make sure she has the general idea of an apple, so you should practice having her label pictures of several different types of apples.

10. You are teaching your child to say the word ‘shoe’. You have demonstrated how to say ‘shoe’ and your child has started to label the shoe when you say the word. Now you want to start fading out this prompt. Which two answers are a good way to do this? Give her just the beginning of the word, saying “sh…” Pause for a few seconds to give her a chance to say it independently. Say a word which is similar in meaning, like “sock”. Give her a hint, such as “you put it on your foot”

The correct answers are A. and B. Saying “sock” will probably be confusing since sock is the correct label for a different object.  Saying, “You put it on your foot,” may be too much language, and you have not yet worked on the function of shoes.

Next: Module 13: Picture Exchange Communication System