Language is what children use to communicate their knowledge and needs. It is what they use to interact with the world to make sense of it. Children are not born with language, yet they always communicate. As typically developing children grow, they expant their methods of communicating from babbling all the way to written expression. When a child does not develop along the same time line as his peers, he needs the benefit of assitive devices. The following activity is designed for the child who is nonverbal.

Using Switches

Materials

1. Assistive communication device
2. Dog who knows the commands of "sit" and "come"

Activity

1. Program the first switch with the command, "(Dog's name), Come!"
2. Second switch is programmed with "Sit!"
3. Third with "Good boy (girl)!"
4. And the last with "Here's your cookie."

Benefits

• Learning a sequence of events
• Vocabulary development and practice of specific words
• Learning the value of communication through having a need met