The Early Communication: Requesting infographic talks about requesting skills and how to initiate those initial requests from a learner. At the most basic level, a learner requests preferred items and activities. That request may be verbal (sounds or words) or it might be nonverbal (pointing, showing an object, sign language, exchanging a visual).
What is an Early Communication: Requesting?
The Early Communication: Requesting infographic talks about requesting skills and how to initiate those initial requests from a learner. At the most basic level, a learner requests preferred items and activities. That request may be verbal (sounds or words) or it might be nonverbal (pointing, showing an object, sign language, exchanging a visual).
Requesting is the first step in teaching functional communication. To teach requesting, the carer starts with identifying strong reinforcers for the learner (food, drink, favorite toy/book/game). Next is creating scenarios where the learner has to request that strong reinforcer. When the learner requests the item, they get it immediately which reinforces them to want to request more items.
Visuals play a vital part in requesting for learners. Visuals are concrete. They don’t disappear like words, and help the learner understand. Visuals support our learner’s communication. They do not replace verbal language. Instead, visuals are used to support that language.
Remember, the key to requesting is reinforcement. When a learner requests an item and they receive that item, the reinforcement is immediate.
