Communicating with device while watching movies!

Every so often I like to post tips on how to communicate with your kiddo while they are doing an activity. Today's is while watching a movie! Kreed is in therapy and makes a lot of progress, but he makes the most progress at home, taking what therapists have shown him or taught him and integrating it completely into his life. We expand on Kreed's language with his device at home in a variety of ways- such as watching a movie! 

Kreed has been nonverbal since he was three years old, so we've all gotten pretty good at reading the signs of what Kreed wants etc. But since he has had a device we "play dumb" in a way and instead of just instinctually knowing what Kreed wants, he has to use his device to tell us. So that means telling us what movie he wants to watch and then telling us about it.

There are some really quick and easy ways to get kids like Kreed (or even verbal kids!!) to communicate and learn language for a given activity that you often find at home, such as watching movies. With Kreed, he has to tell me to turn the TV on (or ipad) etc. Then he has to use a sentence or phrase and tell me WHAT movie he wants to watch. Generally after that it goes on etc. However, at some point I will normally ask him other questions such as WHO his favorite character is, how they FEEL or if he LIKES the movie or not. These are such fast and easy ways to get your child to undrestand concepts such as like/dislike or picking out the emotions in other people or characters. Most people think it takes hours for you to sit with your child with their device, but really, all of these clips below took three minutes or less! It's that fast and makes such a lasting impression.

Kreed used to be a child who threw massive tantrums, bite himself, hit everything and everyone, throw everything (literally- everything!) and everyone walked around on egg shells around him. While he still has his moments, for the most part he is super awesome, very communicative and his goal is no longer destruction and  chaos, but simple to learn to communicate his wants and needs with his device, and lately, more conversational language with it. And most of this has been accomplished with just a minute here or there- not hours upon hours sitting in front of Kreed with his device. We have a life and we fit how to use his device within that life.

Here are a few clips showing what I mean!