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communicati<strong>on</strong> turns (i.e., initiati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> resp<strong>on</strong>se).<br />
Bob did not use socially appropriate<br />
gestures o<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>r than greetings (i.e., saying “excuse<br />
me”) in appropriate situati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> he<br />
appeared to have extreme difficulty reading<br />
o<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>rs’ n<strong>on</strong>verbal or gestural communicati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
His t<strong>on</strong>e of voice was judged as typically inappropriate<br />
<strong>and</strong> characterized by teaching staff<br />
<strong>and</strong> graduate student observers as sarcastic or<br />
negative in most interacti<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
Pragmatic <strong>and</strong> social communicati<strong>on</strong> goals<br />
found in Bob’s IEP included (a) improving<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> ability to read 10 specific n<strong>on</strong>verbal body<br />
gestures <strong>and</strong> explain what <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y mean, (b) saying<br />
“excuse me” <strong>and</strong> using o<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>r socially appropriate<br />
phrases in a variety of social situati<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
(c) increasing successful use of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
visual sentence completi<strong>on</strong> system to create<br />
l<strong>on</strong>ger utterances, <strong>and</strong> (d) using correct body<br />
orientati<strong>on</strong> when c<strong>on</strong>versing.<br />
TJ. TJ was an 18-year-old male with a moderate<br />
cognitive disability of unknown origin.<br />
His primary mode of communicati<strong>on</strong> was oral<br />
speech. His verbal communicati<strong>on</strong> was augmented<br />
with pictorial representati<strong>on</strong>s of items<br />
or ideas (i.e., visual strategies) in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> classroom<br />
as needed as well as <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> use of a laminated<br />
page depicting his behavior management<br />
program. This laminated page was used<br />
across school settings. TJ had functi<strong>on</strong>al oral<br />
communicati<strong>on</strong> skills in structured academic<br />
c<strong>on</strong>texts. When his speech was intelligible, he<br />
was able to carry <strong>on</strong> a c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>vey<br />
<strong>and</strong> receive basic messages successfully. Unfortunately,<br />
his articulati<strong>on</strong> was c<strong>on</strong>sistently<br />
poor, which decreased his intelligibility in<br />
most situati<strong>on</strong>s. TJ did not maintain appropriate<br />
eye c<strong>on</strong>tact when communicating with<br />
peers <strong>and</strong> teaching staff. He habitually spoke<br />
with low intensity <strong>and</strong> his t<strong>on</strong>e of voice was<br />
often judged sarcastic in nature by <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> teaching<br />
staff. TJ’s pragmatic <strong>and</strong> social communicati<strong>on</strong><br />
goals listed in his IEP included (a)<br />
identifying visual cues given by a listener that<br />
indicated a lack of intelligibility <strong>and</strong> self-correcting<br />
those errors, (b) using appropriate<br />
social phrases <strong>and</strong> greetings depending <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
situati<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> (c) identifying appropriate resp<strong>on</strong>ses<br />
for given situati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
Devin. Devin was a 19-year-old male with<br />
cognitive impairment due to traumatic brain<br />
injury that occurred in early childhood. His<br />
primary mode of communicati<strong>on</strong> was oral<br />
speech. Devin typically communicated with<br />
staff <strong>and</strong> peers using single <strong>and</strong> multi-word<br />
utterances. He was moderately intelligible in<br />
familiar c<strong>on</strong>texts. To augment his communicati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
Devin utilized communicati<strong>on</strong> boards<br />
that appeared to also functi<strong>on</strong> as a tool for<br />
learning new vocabulary <strong>and</strong> sentence structure.<br />
He sp<strong>on</strong>taneously used several pre-made<br />
communicati<strong>on</strong> boards in classroom activities.<br />
Devin required prompting from teaching staff<br />
to use a visual communicati<strong>on</strong> system that was<br />
intended to cue him to use l<strong>on</strong>ger utterances.<br />
In less structured social settings, Devin c<strong>on</strong>sistently<br />
produced loud speech. During interacti<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
he repeated multiple times any words<br />
or phrases that he appeared to find funny. He<br />
often laughed out loud after producing loud,<br />
repetitious speech. He also c<strong>on</strong>sistently chose<br />
to leave classroom group activities <strong>and</strong> return<br />
to his desk without warning <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sistently<br />
required a verbal or visual cue to remind him<br />
to ask permissi<strong>on</strong> to leave a group activity.<br />
Devin did not maintain appropriate eye c<strong>on</strong>tact<br />
during communicati<strong>on</strong> interacti<strong>on</strong>s with<br />
peers or school pers<strong>on</strong>nel. Although no visual<br />
deficits were noted in his case history, Devin<br />
typically oriented his face toward his communicati<strong>on</strong><br />
partner but his eyes appeared to look<br />
toward <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> floor. His t<strong>on</strong>e of voice was observed<br />
to be appropriate during <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> majority<br />
of classroom time, but occasi<strong>on</strong>ally he used a<br />
loud vocal t<strong>on</strong>e which appeared to functi<strong>on</strong> as<br />
a way to entertain his peers. Devin’s t<strong>on</strong>e of<br />
voice was characterized as sounding angry<br />
when he was asked to rejoin group activities<br />
after he had moved away from <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>m. Devin’s<br />
IEP goals related to social <strong>and</strong> pragmatic language<br />
included (a) attempting to correctly<br />
re-pr<strong>on</strong>ounce words when listeners appeared<br />
to misunderst<strong>and</strong>, (b) using a communicati<strong>on</strong><br />
board to create l<strong>on</strong>ger sentences, (c) asking<br />
“May I...”toleave his chair to get materials<br />
or leave work space, <strong>and</strong> (d) reducing <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
number of repetiti<strong>on</strong>s of silly phrases <strong>and</strong><br />
jokes in sp<strong>on</strong>taneous c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
Eric. Eric was a 15-year-old male diagnosed<br />
with Down syndrome. Initial classroom <strong>and</strong><br />
mealtime observati<strong>on</strong>s yielded <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> following<br />
summary of findings: Eric’s primary mode of<br />
communicati<strong>on</strong> was oral speech, augmented<br />
with communicati<strong>on</strong> books <strong>and</strong> visual strategies<br />
in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> classroom. He had moderate difficulty<br />
making his wants <strong>and</strong> needs understood<br />
Social-Pragmatic Language Skills Instructi<strong>on</strong> / 345