Promoting Language Development in PreK Students with Communication Disorders

Language development is the process through which students acquire the ability to communicate. In typically developing children, this process begins at around 3 months of age and continues most intensely during the first three years of life. This process begins with an infant’s cry which is when children learn that crying brings food, social attention, and general nourishment. The crying develops into basic cooing at around 3 months when babies begin to understand basic speech sounds. Cooing turns to babbling, which turns to a child’s first few communicative words by age one. By two or three years old, most children know about 500 words. There are developmental checklists that lay out these foundational steps in sequential order.

Children that struggle understanding language (receptive skills) and difficulty with language output (expressive skills) may be diagnosed with a language or communication disorder.

This blog will outline skills and techniques that educators and parents/guardians can use to promote language development in PreK students.

The Relationship between Behavior and Language

Just as babies learn that their needs are met when they cry, many students with language delays learn that behavior, whether positive or challenging, can get them what they want. In simple terms, behavior serves a communicative function. As such, it is important to teach the child how to make specific requests.

Teaching to Request

It is important to start with requesting skills because requesting has an immediate positive benefit for the child. When a child’s request is met, they are given exactly what they want or need at that moment. When this happens, the child will be more likely to request again in the future. Challenging behavior is almost always caused by an inability to request, or the inability to communicate wants and needs.

It is important to think broadly when teaching students how to request. Requests can be made with more than just vocal language. Students may request something by pointing or gesturing, producing sign language, using an AAC device, or picture cards. Some simple steps for teaching to request are outlined below:

1. Identify a student’s top desired items in their environment. (Pick about 3-5 items)
   ○ What are their reinforcers? What do they get excited about?
2. Collect those items and attempt to gain control over them.
   ○ If the student loves watching a certain movie, try playing the movie on a TV rather than on an iPad so you have the ability to turn the movie on and off.
3. Choose a communication modality that you think is best suited to your student.
   ○ If they have great motor imitation skills you might introduce sign language. If they are great at matching and discriminating between pictures you might introduce an AAC device.
4. Introduce the first request by controlling the item in the environment, establishing the child’s motivation for the item, prompting the communication, and delivering the item.
   ○ If the child is requesting a cookie, the teacher might hold the cookie bag in front of the child. Once the student reaches for the bag the teacher would prompt the request and immediately deliver the cookie.
5. It is important that all adults in the child’s environment teach the communicative response in the same way and encourage the request in every scenario.
6. Once the child has become familiar with the request, the teacher should try and fade their prompts.
   ○ Can the child emit the request without the help of the teacher?
7. Throughout this process it is important to take data on the level of prompting delivered to the child and the amount of attempts the student is getting at requesting per day.

 General Tips for Teaching Language to Students with Language Delays

• While a typically-developing child will learn how to make a specific request after a few trials, it may take a child with a language delay hundreds or thousands of trials to learn.
• Start by teaching a few requests at a time so that the child learns to discriminate. The child learns the difference between cookie and movie.
• Teach language as specifically as possible. Instead of teaching general terms such as “more” or “please,” teach specific verbs and nouns such as “ball,” “chip,” or “hug.” This will allow the child to learn the difference between requests and provide the child with many requesting opportunities throughout the day.
• If the child makes an error and calls a “cookie” “movie,” correct the child and reinforce immediately.
• Immediately deliver the item each time the child emits the communicative response.
• If the child is not vocal, pair the vocal word for the requested item when the child emits the response. For example, if the child signs for “ball,” the teacher would say “ball, here is the ball!”
• Flood the student with one word narration of their environment. The more they are exposed to simple language, the better.

These are some general tips for teaching language to PreK students with communication disorders. Teaching to request is the key to unlocking a whole world of language!

Contributor Bio

Shea Kytomaa has her Master’s in Education from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Autism and Developmental Disabilities. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and has worked in K-12 schools, clinics, and community mental health centers. Shea currently serves as a Classroom Consultant at TeachTown and is passionate about bringing K-12 adapted core curriculum into special education classrooms.