Communication Based Activities for Young Adults

Recently speech-language pathologist Staci Brown asked me about best resources for communication activities for young adults with disabilities. I wish I could have answered back with a huge resource list but honestly, it's not that simple.  While there are tons of activity books and websites devoted to preschool and elementary aged students with communication challenges, there isn't much out there for our older students.  And, if we are talking about adults with multiple or severe impairments, there is next to nothing. It has only been in recent years that we have decided to raise our expectations of this population so the resources have yet to catch up. It was for this reason that I ended up making a lot of my own activities.  So where do I go for inspiration?  Here are a few places (I don't receive $$ or kickbacks from any of these resources):

1. Project Core: Project Core is a website devoted to improving communication and literacy outcomes for students with complex communication needs. It is a treasure trove of resources and information.  I specifically like the professional development modules for shared reading, predictable chart writing, and independent reading and writing.  These modules provide a framework for activities that can be used weekly to teach literacy and communication to students with complex communication needs.  You can vary the topics while providing literacy instruction in a predictable structure.  But shouldn't I be just teaching life and functional skills???  Well, yes, our students do need life skills but last time I checked, literacy and communication were both life skills.  Also, research by Jonna Bobzien (2014) has shown that students with severe disabilities showed increased signs of happiness and happiness behaviors when engaged in academic learning. Functional skills are pretty boring.

2. Tarheel Reader and Tarheel Shared Reader: Tarheel Reader is a site full of free, easy to read, accessible books with real pictures so they are more age appropriate for older students.  The books are user created so the quality varies but you can write your own books on the site or modify books already on the site to meet your needs.  You can find books on a variety of topics that might be of interest to your students.  The site can also read the books aloud (in a very weird computer voice), you can project them onto an interactive whiteboard (if you are lucky enough to have one of those), they are switch adaptable, and you can download and print them out.  At some point, we need to stop using picture books meant for 5 year olds and this is a great place to find more mature looking books. You do not need to create an account to use the site but, in order write your own books on the site, you must request a code by sending an email to tarheelreader@cs.unc.edu . Once you have the code, you can create a user name and password and start creating books.

Tarheel Shared Reader is a newer resource to go along with the shared reading procedure on the Project Core website.  Tarheel Shared Reader is a resource for books with core vocabulary based comments already done for you that you can use during shared reading lessons.  How easy is that?

In order to use Tarheel Shared Reader, first log in to Tarheelreader.org then enter https://shared.tarheelreader.org/ into your browser.  You will get a page that says select a student or group.  You can add individual students or a classroom group using the plus sign.  Once you select a student or group, you can start searching for books.  Make sure you go through the training modules first so that you get the most out of this resource.

3. Draw Inspiration from your core vocabulary.  If you aren't already using and modeling a core vocabulary in your classroom, you need to print one out and get going.  The Project Core website has core in several formats that can be downloaded for free.  In addition, most of the websites for the communication apps such as AssistiveWare and Tobii Dynavox (to name a few) have free core vocabularies that you can download.  Don't waste your money buying a core as there are so many free options. And while modeling core vocabulary throughout the day is a great place to start, you will also have to directly teach each of these words in context.

Research is now saying to teach one core word per day, but if you are just starting out, at least shoot for one word per week.  Select a word and plan activities around that word as well as looking for opportunities to use the word throughout the day.  If you need ideas, try the AssistiveWare Core Word of the Week planners.  These planning guides have activity ideas and book suggestions appropriate for various ages.  Many are either appropriate or can be adapted for young adults.  There are usually links to several Tarheel Reader books that you can use as a jumping off point for your lesson.  You can easily target a word such as "put" while doing a cooking activity where you need to "put" things into the bowl to make your recipe.  In addition, AAC Language Lab is a membership site with core vocabulary based activities for a variety of ages. The membership is $19.95 a year which isn't too bad but there a several free activities on the site like this recipe for infused water to spark your creativity

4. News 2 You: News 2 You is an accessible online weekly newspaper allowing students at a variety of levels to learn about current events.  The news articles are adapted with symbols and are available in 4 levels to meet various cognitive and literacy needs.  They also come with extension activities.  Current events are definitely age appropriate for young adults.  The only drawback, it's not cheap. A one year membership is around $200.00. 

5. What are people their age doing?: It doesn't hurt to ask neuro-typical young adults what they are into if you truly want to be age-appropriate.  My teen boys like to watch other people play video games on YouTube and search for memes.  Most of my 20-something coworkers use some form of social media like Snapchat or Instagram.  Others binge-watch TV shows.  Many adults are into cosplay. Almost all of them are into music.  Some random ideas are:

a. Explore current trending popular music on Youtube: make comments (like, not, more, who). Move your students along from the babyish music that they may prefer.
b. Watch a show such as Born This Way, Dancing With the Stars, The Voice, game shows, etc.: model comments and have students make comments, predictions, etc. (thanks to Lapeer County ISD Center and Wing Lake Developmental Center for this idea)
c. Take pictures of students with different Snapchat lenses and make comments on those.
d. Develop a class Instagram or other social media account to share class happenings.  Have students use AAC to comment on activities or events.  Faces can be obscured with stickers if needed.
e. Choose a meme of the day/week and use AAC to comment.

6. Grown-up crafts:  Obviously fine motor limitations might restrict the types of crafts your students can handle but try to get away from crafts that you would do with younger students.  How about having your students make the posters for school events, design and decorate bulletin boards around the building, or make holiday or birthday cards for students and staff.  The students can use AAC to select what will go on the craft, where items will be placed, how many items, etc.  Creating modern art in the style of Jackson Pollock and other artists might also be fun.

What NOT to do:

1. Kids books, for the most part: I know our students love them but we probably need to move away from using children's books as much as possible.  Seriously, how many years are we going to do The Hungry Caterpillar?  You can probably still get away with doing some traditional folktales or campfire stories but start to phase out the old preschool favorites.  If you are really struggling to break the habit, start a children's theater group.  Have your older students each choose a character from a fave children's book and use AAC to recite their lines.  Then perform for a younger group of children.

2. Watching preschool TV shows: It's time to ban Barney.  I know some of our students continue to have a love affair with that big purple dinosaur but seriously, watch something else.  Many suggestions are listed above.

3. Preschool music:  Noticing a theme?  There is plenty of great music out there.  Try the music from popular musicals and movies instead.   My friend and teacher Jessica Lovelace plays the music from The Greatest Showman all the time.  It's upbeat and fun like preschool music but it is appropriate for all ages.

4. Relating every activity to a holiday: Our students in the state of Michigan may be going to school until they are 26 years old.  If they attend a day program starting in preschool, that's 23 shamrock projects by the time they exit school.  It makes me bored just thinking about it. It is certainly appropriate to acknowledge an upcoming holiday but I would limit activities to shortly before the holiday.  Don't spend the entire month doing lessons around one particular holdiay.  There is so much more in the world to learn about.

5. Safety signs: I am going to refrain from going on an all-out rant on this one but I soooo want to.  Every post-high school program for students with disabilities has a safety signs curriculum stashed in a cabinet somewhere.  And students spend an inordinate amount of time doing worksheets or bingo to ensure that they can match signs such as "exit" or "caution".  Before you waste precious time torturing your students with this boring and useless activity, ask yourself if they really need to know how to identify a railroad crossing sign.  Better to spend your time working on literacy skills.

Do you have ideas for young adults that you love?  Let me hear from you!   I'd love to feature you in an upcoming blog post.