Draw and talk

Draw and Talk

Uses drawing to ‘Sketching’ enhances the meaning as children draw.

Drawing is a complex sensory motor action requiring the selection, organisation and communication of visual material.

Drawing establishes a relationship between the child and the world.

‘My drawing is about______, because______’

This student has Down Syndrome and significant language delays. He is at the drawing stage, sometimes he attempts to write individual letters. Currently he is not motivated to use a device. 

He has some amazing ideas and even though his language is very delayed, he uses a combination of NZ sign language  and speech to convey his message. in the pictures below, the class was asked to create an invention. He decided to invent a self cleaning food bowl for his cat. He wanted to call it 'Doolalee machine'. He did all the designing and I recorded what he said. Due to the complexities of writing, this student wouldn't attempt it. He has the ideas.....by using draw and talk, the adult is able to record what he say.

Thereafter he made his invention. He often requires lots of motivation to get started with his writing, but because this was of interest, he got started immediately with the drawing. I wrote what he said. he was able to then make the invention. He was so excited to show everyone what he drew and made.

Real reasons for writing

Student's work

This student is also more motivated to write when he has had an experience. He needs to know why he is writing, in this case it is to share his holiday experience. 

During the holidays he visited the sky tower. Using visual supports this is what he wrote.

After explicit teaching of sentence construction, he is able to form a simple sentence. He is also adding more information to his writing.
More importantly, he is wants to share his writing with others at school and his whanau.
Beginning a task and staying focused is an ongoing issue. He requires lots of support and motivation to get started. He has a reward system in place to help him stay focused. 

Even though he responds well to this system most times, we had a few incidents regarding this students behavior. He finds it difficult to manage himself. We have used a range of social scripts to help him make good choices. Recently he hurt another student, We used this opportunity to write a letter to the people involved also showing him real reasons for writing.

Evidence Sharing

Students writing sample.

In my previous blogs post , I began testing my hypothesis around writing for authentic/real reasons. I found that some students were more motivated to write and stayed on task for longer periods if they had an experience to write about. They could relate to their experience. I got the whanau involved and they are sharing photos. As student are not always able to give the details of what took place, whanau are providing the details. 

This student is usually not motivated to write. She will take a long time before getting started and would need lots of motivation. 

She went to Fiji for the school holidays. she really enjoyed the trip with her family and was very exited to write about it. Even though her sentences are not grammatically correct, I am able to get the gist of what took place. I have then modeled the sentence back to her.

Even though we have done explicit teaching using Who, doing what, this student still has difficulties in constructing a sentence. 

She is very excited to share her story with her class mates and whanau and wants to use this for her speech as well.