Sentence Builder ASD/PDD

You use the page to teach whatever language concepts you like because the images are not labeled and there is no text to voice. The words and language come from you and the learner. This offers a unique ability to use imagery now familiar and understood by the learner to increase and expand the depth and breadth of language learning with pronouns, adjectives, verbs, intentions or anything else that brings a deeper understanding of meaningful language.

The directions include approaches to encourage then reinforce and expand spontaneous language and reciprocal conversation regarding the comparison of the activity of the children depicted in the meaningful and comprehensive photographs. This is a great opportunity to move away from the norm of asking the learner questions which then causes the learner to wait to speak, then speak only to answer correctly. What this app provides is the ability for the learner to compare children, remark on their observation, listen to your observations and respond. This enables the teacher to inject additional language concepts into the conversation thereby modeling more language for the learner. You may move through the app at your own pace, forward or backward to revisit to expand or reinforce concepts, point out other similarities or differences and spend more time on the images. Each page is independently used from the others with a focus on verb use and how the verb relates to intention.

The page is divided in two, comparing two related verbs such as wants/has. One side is for you to model (either side). The other side is different enough that the learner must think, use your model for understanding then create a novel sentence to describe his or her side of the page. In this first step app, the concentration is on observing and comparing children in a situation of want or has, eats, drinks. The focus is on verb use.

The object is to draw attention to the child shown and the intent or action of the child. The learner is then taught through positive reinforcement to independently comment on the child. This gives you the opportunity to comment about the same child on your side of the page. The conversation is now about the child, his or actions, needs, wants, intentions, traits or anything you want to teach. There is no time limit. You may spend as much time as you like on any page, talking, demonstrating, comparing, pointing out things of importance to you or your learner, describing or fostering new and emerging language skills.

There are five pages dedicated to observation skills first using shapes, and then generalizing to children in the following 7 pages. The next 24 pages are dedicated to fostering the development of complete novel sentences. There are no fill in the blanks. Every sentence must be completely constructed by you or the learner. The sentences are simple, as this is a first step language learning application (noun-verb-noun). The spoken sentences may go far beyond the n-v-n because there is no text to voice in this app. This way, you can add whatever language value you want to assign to any of the concept icons.

For example, the icons may be three images: a girl, wants and cupcakes. A simple basic sentence would be "The girl wants a cupcake". However, as your learner is ready, you can build on this with sentences such as "She wants a cupcake", "She wants a pink cupcake", the girl likes cupcakes, she wants one” She wants a pink one" "She feels hungry and wants a cupcake". The potential is as vast as you want to make it.

The images are selected to serve as a shared experience that you and the learner will use to build a communication experience that will grow and develop every time you use it. Feel free to contact us for ideas, with questions or for information. We want to make a difference in your life.