APH Intervention
Continuum of
Communication
Skills
by
Kerry Isham,
Field Services Representative
APH provides a line of products which –
when used sequentially - helps teach
individuals with no formal means of
communication methods of effectively
making their wants and needs known.
• Sensory Learning Kit
• Symbols and Meaning
• Tactile Connections
These three products help nonverbal
individuals with visual impairments shift
seamlessly from haphazard movements
and touch to purposeful actions and use
of symbols to communicate.
SAM
SLK
Tactile Connections
Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
• Sensorimotor – 1st stage – Trying to
make sense of the world using senses
and movement.
• Preoperational – 2nd stage – Onset of
language and use of symbols,
pretending. Still lacks concrete logic.
• Operational – 3rd stage – Beginning to
think logically and abstractly.
We begin with the
Sensory Learning Kit
Sensory Learning Kit (SLK)
Builds cognitive skills
at the sensorimotor
level of cognition,
which is the first of
Jean Piaget’s stages
of cognitive
development – trying
to make sense of the
world using senses
and movement. The
SLK uses highly
attractive materials.
Sensory Learning Kit
An educational intervention
designed to
•Build a positively bonded
relationship between the learner
and the practitioner
•Provide social experiences that
facilitate access to sensory
information
•stimulates curiosity
•motivates interactions
•develops skills
Sensory Learning Kit
Target population
•Cognitive age: 0-2 years
•Chronological age: 0 and up
•Could include
•Infants with atypical responses
•Toddlers with atypical responses and
mild to moderate delays
•Pre-school and early elementary
students with moderate to severe
delays
•Late elementary and secondary
students with severe to profound
delays
Sensory Learning Kit
Can assist in increasing one’s
quality of life in these areas:
•Agency - Control over people and events
•Anticipation - Something to look forward to
•Participation - Shared experience
Sensory Learning Kit
Use of Routines – highly
structured activities to encourage
reactions and interactions with the
SLK components.
Routines:
•Are familiar
•Are predictable
•Allow for controlled pacing
•Minimize sensory clutter
•Are consistent
•Are frequent
•Are low-stress
Sensory Learning Kit
Routines can address these 3 levels of
sensorimotor learning:
• Quiet alert - Attention to stimulation
provided by partner
• Active alert - Exploration of learning
media
• Partial Participation - Outcome
directed motor sequences
Sensory Learning Kit
Routines teach:
• Object exploration
• Object permanence
• Imitation
• Causality
• Means-ends
• Basic spatial
relationships
The second APH product in
the sequence is
Symbols and Meaning
Symbols and Meaning (SAM)
Target population students with visual and
multiple impairments and preschool children with visual
impairments who are just
beginning to use symbols the late sensorimotor, early
preoperational stage of
cognitive development
Symbols and Meaning
Late sensorimotor and
early preoperational
level cognitive skills are
the focus.
Again, recall from
Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
that Preoperational is
the 2nd stage – the onset
of language, the use of
symbols, & pretending.
The individual still lacks
concrete logic.
Symbols and Meaning
SAM includes a
guidebook which
provides strategies
that help develop a
strong sensory
foundation for
concepts about
people, objects,
actions, and places.
Through use of these
strategies, such
symbols become
meaningful.
Symbols and Meaning
Games and activities
focus on symbology
(words & objects)
representing:
People: The self and
others
Objects: Tangible things
Actions: Body
movements of the
self and others
Places: Where things
are, contexts for
groups of things
Symbols and Meaning
Once meaning is established by
pairing symbols and concrete
referents, additional games give
individuals the opportunity to use
object and word symbols in
communication contexts. Videos of
each game are included.
Symbols and Meaning
SAM enables learners to understand:
• What is it?
• What does it do?
• How does it relate to other things?
Symbols and Meaning kit
contents:
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2 baskets
Digital recorder
25 plastic story pages
Assessments and Games book
Electronic assessment forms
Flash drive
Large Print Guidebook
SAM videos
Sport bag
Symbols and Meaning kit
contents, cont’d:
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3 sizes of story bags
3 sizes of story binders
Vinyl story box liners
6 story boxes
Non-glare plastic tray liner
Vinyl tray liners
Two trays
Black Velcro strip and coins
White Velcro strip and coins
The last product in the
continuum is
Tactile Connections
Tactile Connections Symbols for Communication
• Allows teachers to create a tactile card
system that is individualized for visually
impaired and blind learners who have
additional disabilities and/or lack a
formal means of communication or
literacy.
• Tactile symbols are created when part
of an object is mounted on a hand-sized
card representing core vocabulary
categories (e.g. people, places, actions,
objects, etc.).
Tactile Connections
Target population –
Allows practitioners to create
communication symbols for learners in
the late preoperational through the
operational stage of cognitive
development, where use of symbols is
more extensive and complex.
Tactile Connections
Symbols such as words and pictures
become tools for problem-solving,
pretending and socializing.
Tactile Connections
This kit can help
build skills for the
use of tactile
symbols (objects
and parts of objects
organized into
categories) as
communication tools
in environments
where sighted peers
might use pictures.
Tactile Connections
This kit contains
many of the essential
components needed
to create an effective
tactile
communication
system – from an
individual’s use of
only simple nouns
and verbs to fairly
complex sentence
construction.
APH worked with a number of
knowledgeable professionals when
creating the products in this much
needed intervention continuum. For the
most effective learning experience, it is
recommended that practitioners and
parents use these three products
sequentially.
• Sensory Learning Kit
• Symbols and Meaning
• Tactile Connections
Can you think of at least one
individual with whom you work
who could benefit from the
APH Intervention Continuum?
Kerry Isham, Field Services Representative
kisham@aph.org