Teaching Yes/No head movements for communication

Описание: Teaching yes/no head movements. This is a hot topic and I probably get a few messages a month asking how we taught yes/no to the kids. To put things into perspective we began teaching Angela yes/no when she was about 2.5 years old. She is now 9. So what you see is the culmination of almost 7 years of dedication.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not really proud of the way we taught these movements to her. It's was really tough love. But, as I say frequently -- you can only act on the knowledge you have. Period. Now that we have the knowledge to teach a better way -- we teach a better way!

The best example of yes/no teaching can be seen in our man Siah. He joined our family when he was eight years old. He had no prior yes/no movement and little understanding of choice making or of his ability to have an opinion. We started Siah with verbal referencing. He had very little head movement. His neck has some fixed contracture so his flexibility is limited. However, by using verbal referencing and a few other tools I'll talk about later in this post, we have been able to shape the movement he DOES have into a readable yes/no.

There are many ways to get a yes/no but it's so so so important to work towards an agreed on signal that everyone can understand. In our culture this is a yes/no head nod. Communication is WAY more than talking to mom and dad and immediate communication partners. It's about the rest of the world understanding you. Of course you take what you can get but we MUST be working toward an culturally understood signal.

Even though my kids can now do the yes/no movements we must keep practicing them. My kids have complicated bodies that are always changing and this means that we have a responsibility to practice every single day!

Teaching yes/no needs to be done outside the actual asking of yes/no questions or partner scanning. It's a skill that in it's self requires time put into learning and refining. One of the biggest challenges for kids with complex bodies in learning this movement is actually learning to intend the movement. If I can't really feel my body in space then how the heck can I intend yes/no. So going back and looking at positioning is cructial. The body needs to be well support (by the child, not straps) so they can really feel their body.

For young kids putting yes/no movements to songs and rhyme is a great tool. My kids do great with just repeating a rhythmical intention. In this clip I'm not using the rhythmical intention as it left my head when I hit record but normally we use the intention taught to me by the people from CPEC:

I move my head down, down, down
I lift my head up, up, up
I nod my head and I say yes!

I move my head to the side, side, side
I move my head to the middle, middle, middle
I shake my head and I say no!

You can also use objects to help the head track and move. A red and green ballon could be Mrs. Yes and Mr. No. For my older kids we made Beyoncé Mrs. Yes and of course JayZ is Mr. No.

This video is a very abbreviated version of our daily routine. We wanted to share with you just a small example what this can look like for kids like mine! Again, we don't do things perfect but we are learning as we go and I hope you can learn a bit along with us. So many people automatically assume kids with complicated bodies can't do yes/no movements. Truth it, there may only be a handful within thousands who just can't be taught due to physical limitations. Everyone deserves the chance. It's not something that is learned overnight. Again -- we have been working for almost 7 years with Angela.

Start now. It's never too early and it's never too late.