Date: Thursday, Jan.15/2001

I was reading a book to N, who is a 4 years old boy and has autism. The book was about dinosaurs, and one of his most favorite books. Another child, B, came to our table and started watching the book. At a certain point, B asked me a question, "What is that (a dinosaur)?" I thought that this could be a good chance for them to interact with each other. I said, "You can ask N." To my suggestion, he looked at N and asked him the same question.

Because N just kept looking at the book, I had to redirect N’s attention from the book to me, saying, "Look, N, B has a question to you" So he looked at me first and then B for a short time. I heard N saying the name of the dinosaur a couple of times, not looking at B’s face, but looking at the book. Although N said the name of the dinosaurs, I was not sure whether he was actually answering to B’s question intentionally or he was just enjoying naming the dinosaur without paying attention to B. I had to interpret what he said, which sounded a little unclear, no matter what he intended, because B was looking at N and waiting for the answer. I said to B, "N says … (the name of dinosaurs; I forgot what it was)"

When I was helping the two kids to interact to each other, I remembered how P, my cooperating teacher, showed this skill on the playground on Wednesday. N was hanging around the slide where some children were sliding. P started helping N to interact with the children. When each child was ready to slide, sitting on his or her bottom on the top of the slide, P asked N, "Who is it?" and helped him remember his or her name. Then she asked him say, "Say, go, (the child’s name)!" I saw N saying his friends’ names and practicing the verb, ‘go’ eventually. The children, ready to slide, was looking at N and waiting for his cue. N was smiling and looked truly enjoying that interaction.

It was good chance for me to learn and practice the skill to promote child-to-child interaction. So far, I have been just watching him on the playground, following him like his shadow. I realized that I needed to improve the skill while observing him. Sometimes I wonder when is the best time to step in and step out of the situations. Throughout one of the videos, the process of communication, I learned that teachers should allow spontaneous interactions among the children to occur while providing assistance without directly participating in the children’s interactions or stepping back and fading physically away from the children’s interactions. I think that playing-outside-time is good time for teachers to practice and employ the skill.

Related Link:

• Facilitating Communication (from the Circle of Inclusion Guidelines)