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Providing Help
The information
we offer here is meant to be read after the previous section
on Teaching
Opportunities. We recommend that you read that section
now, before you begin this section on Providing Help. You
will find it much easier to learn about Naturalistic Interventions
if you follow the sections in the order presented.
Having gained some understanding of teaching opportunities,
you can now learn about how to teach by giving help. When
you help, you are giving your child the opportunity to perform
a skill more correctly, completely, or independently.
Before beginning to learn about providing help,
it might be helpful to read a little bit about learning and
how learning works for children with special needs.
About Learning
As children grow, they learn new skills and
abilities. They also learn to recognize signals about when
and where to use these skills and abilities. We call these
kinds of signals "cues." Cues can be feelings (like being
cold, that signal a child to get or ask for a coat) places
(like classrooms, that are signals to walk and not run), or
people (like teachers, that signal a child to complete certain
tasks). Cues have meaning for children because when they do
certain things in the presence of certain cues, desirable
results follow. For example, seeing a desired object can be
a cue to make a request. When the child responds appropriately
to this signal by asking for the desired object, we say she
is functioning independently.
Also, children learn to do
certain things at certain times and in certain places, and
not to do certain things in other times and places. For
example, most young children learn to talk, walk and, eventually,
run. Over time, many learn that it is fine to run outside
but not in the house, the grocery store or in the preschool
classroom. They learn that it is fun to yell at a ball game
and on the playground but it isn't a good idea to yell when
they want something from someone else or when they are in
places like church or a shopping center. They learn to do
things and also to recognize cues about when it is OK to do
those things.
These cues, which we call
natural cues, signal that certain behaviors are acceptable
and others are not. They
may be materials--such as toys on a shelf- -that serve as
reminders to ask permission in order to use them. The cues
may be other people and what they are doing. Seeing other
children at play may become a natural cue to join in. Finally,
natural cues often happen in common routines. For example,
for many children, there is a routine associated with leaving
a fast food restaurant. A parent saying, "It's time to go,"
becomes the natural cue to dump any remains on the tray into
the trash and stack the tray on top of the trash bin.
But, sometimes children
have difficulty responding to natural cues. They may
not recognize the natural cue or they may not have the skills
to do what others do when those natural cues happen. These
children may become frustrated or upset; they may quit trying
to respond, or they may develop habits that get in the way
of them getting what they want. Therefore, when children have
difficulty responding to natural cues, it is a signal for
you to help them. But, to increase your child's chances for
success, it is important to learn what kinds of help there
are and how best to use them.
Continue on to Providing Help
Introduction
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