ASD Pre-Speaking Program is designed to teach a range of cognitive and linguistic skills to non-verbal children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental conditions that interfere with language development. (Note: The term “non-verbal” is often misleading since many of the children can comprehend and incorporate language. A more accurate term would be “non-speaking.”) Upon successful completion of the program, children are able to attend to directions, guidance, and input from adults; sustain attention to cognitive demands for periods up to 15 to 20 minutes; gain the ability to retain increasingly complex sequences of visual information; comprehend and respond to increasingly complex language-based demands. ASD Pre-Speaking may be implemented by a parent, teacher, therapist, or other dedicated adult.  ASD Pre-Speaking is organized into short daily sessions lasting about 15 to 20 minutes each. Sessions take place once per day, four or fi ve days per week. Skills taught in the lessons are also practiced outside the session in real-world settings. Depending on the child’s skill and rate of progress, the full program takes from 2 to 6 months to complete. Four activities are used, with each aimed at fostering attention, sequencing, memory and language. Each activity starts with processing “one piece” of information (e.g., matching one picture to another) and then moves steadily so that the child is incorporating, reviewing, and acting upon “four pieces” of information (e.g. having seen four pictures that are no longer in view, the child selects, via memory, four pictures that match the originals.) NOTE: This program is also included as part of ASD Unlocking Language (Part 1).

ASD Pre-Speaking Program: A Program to Teach the Foundations of Language to Nonverbal Children

Education & Teaching

Goh, Suzanne

Blank, Marion S

Schools & Teaching

MSB Press

ASD Speaking Sounds is a program designed to teach the foundation underlying the production of meaningful speech in children with ASD and other developmental conditions that interfere with speech production. Central to the program is the issue of sequencing. A basic fact of language life is that single words do not represent a meaningful language system. “Real” messages, even simple ones such as “want cookie, dog eats, no walk,” etc. require that sounds be chained together to form combinations of words. That, in turn, requires complex, intricate mouth movements that can be extremely challenging. The problems are akin to the fi ne motor diffi culties that the children display in activities such as handwriting and pulling up zippers. While the fi ne motor diffi culties in those areas have been well recognized, the importance of comparable fi ne motor movements of the mouth, lips and tongue in the production of speech has often received insuffi cient attention. Nevertheless, the area is critical. It’s why the children’s ability and willingness to produce two sequenced sounds are such important indicators of their ability to benefi t from the program. In producing two sounds in succession, they are showing that they have achieved the necessary base for “interweaving” sounds and moving onto increasingly complex speech production. Using sounds that the children can produce (so the input is adapted to the abilities of the individual child), the program starts by requesting one sound at a time (e.g., say “bah”). The lessons then expand to include increasing numbers of sounds—so that by the end of the program, the children are producing sequences of four speech sounds such as “mee, bah, koo, koo”. As indicated by the examples, the program focuses on speech sounds but not on actual words— although occasionally word-like sounds appear. The sounds are always ones that can be used in words but they themselves are rarely words. This technique serves to simplify the situation for the child. With meaning “out of the way,” the child learns to focus on the production of the sounds themselves and on the movements in the mouth area needed to create the sounds. With the attainment of four sequenced speech sounds, the child can then transition to ASD Unlocking Language which teaches the skills of actual language including expressing ideas, answering questions, summarizing observations, etc. ASD Speaking Sounds may be implemented by a parent, teacher, therapist, or other adult.

ASD Speaking Sounds: A Program to Foster the Sounds of Language

Music has amazing appeal for children on the autism spectrum as well as those with other neurodevelopmental disorders. Many also display remarkable abilities to play musical instruments. Music not only provides a source of great pleasure, it also provides a route for building skills to foster a range of cognitive abilities, including attention, memory and sequencing. The activities in ASD Piano Play teach children some basic skills in this domain by having them produce musical sequences by playing notes on a keyboard.

ASD Piano Play: A Program to Teach Early Music

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Blank, Marion S. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Blank, Marion S

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Blank, Marion S. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

ASD Pre-Speaking Program: A Program to Teach the Foundations of Language to Nonverbal Children

ASD Speaking Sounds: A Program to Foster the Sounds of Language

ASD Piano Play: A Program to Teach Early Music