Page 50 - Demo

42 %u00a9 Elklan Training Limited 2025Elklan Supporting Gestalt Language Processing %u2013 a Total Communication ApproachA child or young person may show preferences but not use a gestalt. For example, child A is at GLP Stage 2. He often wanted to go on the wobble board and would point to a photo of the wobble board but didn%u2019t say anything. A said %u2018Let%u2019s go bike%u2019 or %u2018Let%u2019s go high%u2019 when wanting to go on a bike or swing so the words written under the photo of the wobble board he liked were %u2018Let%u2019s go wobble%u2019 to encourage the use of more gestalts.Examples of paper-based communication aidsFirst-Then boardsA First-Then board should incorporate the gestalts the child or young person is using mapped onto a photo/symbol/image of the activity, so it conveys the whole meaning. In this example child O is at Stage 1 Gestalt Language Processing. Eating causes O distress and she prefers to eat finger foods so she can pick up the food and eat independently. One of the first foods O seemed to enjoy were sausages. O loves music and whilst O ate, the adult sang %u2018Five fat sausages%u2019 because this helped maintain O%u2019s regulation so she could eat. O started to hum the tune whenever she ate so the tune began to represent food in general. To signal time to eat, the picture used to represent the song %u2018Five fat sausages%u2019 which she responded to, was used to represent %u2018It%u2019s time to eat%u2019 but the script under it said %u2018Five fat sausages time%u2019. After sitting and eating, O responded well to physical activity to meet her movement needs in the sensory room. She said %u2018running and jumping time%u2019 as she approached the room so the %u2018then%u2019 picture on the board was arranged as shown here:FIRSTFive fat sausages timeTHENRunning andjumping time