Lesson Starters

Self-Management to Teach Communication Skills

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Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-week self-management program to teach students with disabilities communication skills

Settings and Materials

Setting

Classroom

Materials

Games (i.e., map drawing, playing cards, furniture, counters, cartoons, Legos, cartoons, spot the difference, shopping, tower of Hanoi, and shapes).

Content Taught

  • Communication skills through game playing

Teaching Procedures

  • Before the activity, teacher should ask students about the three things that are important for the game (asking questions, answering questions, and checking work) and provide reminders on why they are important

Steps for Map Drawing Activity

  1. Schematic map is placed in front of both participants on gentle sloping wooden blocks
  2. A screen is placed between the participants so they cannot see each other's map
  3. One participant is given the role of information fiver and the other is given the role of information follower
  4. The information giver is prompted to describe the route marked around the landmark features on the map so the information follower could draw the same route on their map
  5. Four additional features are on the information givers map that do not appear on the information followers map and three are featured on the information followers map that do not appear on the information givers map
  6. Once participants finished round one, the participants changed roles and were given different maps for round two of the session
  • After the activity, the teacher should ask the students about what went well to highlight student achievement

Evaluation

Students’ performance is evaluated by number of words per dialogued both before, during, and after the intervention.

Lesson Starter Based On:

Lamb, S. J., Bibby, P. A., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Promoting the communication skills of children with moderate learning difficulties. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 13(3), 261–278. https://doi.org/10.1177/026565909701300304 

For Developing Self-Management Skills to teach Communication Skills:

  • Berg, W.K., & Wacker, D.P. (1989). Evaluation of tactile prompts with a student who is deaf, blind, and mentally retarded. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22, 93-99.
  • Irvine, A.B., Erickson, A.M., Singer, G.H.S., & Stahlberg, D.A., (1992). A coordinated program to transfer self-management skills from school to home. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 27, 241-254.

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Lesson Starter: Using Self-Management to Teach Communication Skills (docx)

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Ideas that Work: Office of Special Education Programs
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The contents of this Research to Practice Lesson Starter were developed under a grant (H326E200003) from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

This product is public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted. While permission to reprint this publication is not necessary, the citation should be:

National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: the Collaborative (2021). Research to practice lesson starter: Using parent training to promote parent knowledge in the transition process. University of North Carolina at Charlotte.