Chapter 12

The Many Different Faces of Expression

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

—Albert Einstein

Rationale for Including Skill Category

Difficulty in these nuanced areas of communication development may also be manifested by students with ADD/ADHD, S/LI, NLD, and ED, although the reason for such difficulty may be more extrinsic than intrinsic.

Present Levels of Performance for Communication, Expression, and Narrative Skills

These should include

Note that if the student is nonverbal or minimally verbal, it is important to include a statement about the student's current means of communication.

Content Area: Joint Attention

Sample PLP for a five-year-old student with moderate ASD: Student will engage with his parents, teacher, and speech-language pathologist regarding items that he wants; however, he does not consistently respond to adults' attempts to direct his attention to interesting objects and events, even if they would likely be of interest to him. These difficulties prevent student from benefiting from the rich array of educational experiences in his kindergarten classroom.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given the out-of-reach placement of a preferred item, student will respond to the directive “Look” plus communicative point by looking at the item and shifting his gaze back to the adult, 6/10 contrived opportunities in the therapy room or small group setting, given 1 or 2 repetitions of the direction, and a prompt to promote appropriate gaze shifting (for example, clearing one's throat to attract the child's attention).

Short-Term Objective 2

Given the out-of-reach placement of a preferred item, student will respond to the directive “Look” plus communicative point by looking at the item and shifting his gaze back to the adult, 8/10 contrived opportunities in the therapy room or small group setting, given a maximum of 1 repetition of the direction and a prompt to promote appropriate gaze shifting.

Note that gaze shifting should be reinforced, immediately, in the two preceding objectives by obtaining the object for the child and allowing him to play with it for a few minutes.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given the out-of-reach placement of a preferred item, student will respond to the adult's communicative point by looking at the item and shifting his gaze back to the adult, independently, 8/10 contrived opportunities in the therapy room or small-group setting, given a prompt to promote appropriate gaze shifting, verbal praise, and the object.

Annual Goal

Student will respond to adults' joint-attention bids by looking at the object to which he has been directed, either verbally or gesturally, and then shifting his gaze back to the adult, 8/10 opportunities in the classroom, independently or with expectant waiting, as needed.

Content Area: Pragmatic Functions of Communication

Requesting/Protesting (or Refusing/Rejecting)

Sample PLP for a four-year-old nonverbal student with severe autism: Student's teacher and speech-language pathologist report that she is quite self-sufficient—when she wants something, she will try to obtain it on her own. For example, if something is on a high shelf, student will usually bring a chair over to the area and attempt to climb on it to obtain what she desires. If a chair is unavailable, she will sometimes lead the adult to the object. Although student is able to give a photograph in an exchange format to request something, given cues, she does not appear to look at the photograph or connect it to the item she receives. Student's primitive, nonverbal communication skills often cause her a good deal of frustration. In addition, they not only prevent her from participating effectively in her special education classroom but also limit her mainstream experiences.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP (Set One: Simple Requesting)

Short-Term Objective 1

Given the presence of preferred food and beverage items and the question (accompanied by manual signs), “What do you want?” student will request one or the other item by picking up the small representational object associated with it and placing it in the adult's open palm, 8/10 opportunities, across different food and beverage choices, and across different people, given hand-over-hand physical assistance by a third party (for example, paraprofessional).

Short-Term Objective 2

Given the presence of preferred food and beverage items and the question (accompanied by manual signs), “What do you want?” student will request one or the other item by picking up the small representational object associated with it and handing it to the adult, with an appropriate gaze shift to adult, 8/10 opportunities, across different food and beverage choices, and across different people, given minimal physical assistance (tapping the hand).

It should be noted that the gaze shift may be stimulated by holding the object at eye level. Or the adult could make a sound, such as clearing his or her throat, to attract the child's attention, and wait until she shifts her gaze to fulfill the request.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given the presence of preferred food and beverage items, and the indirect cue, “I have crackers and juice,” student will request item(s) desired by selecting one or more small objects from an array of 2–3 different food, and 2–3 different beverage choices, and handing it (or them) to the adult, using an appropriate gaze shift, 8/10 opportunities, across different food and beverage choices, and across different people, given minimal gestural cues, as needed.

Explanatory Notes

Annual Goal

When presented with a snack tray, student will initiate requests for food and beverage items by selecting 1 or more small objects from an array of 3–5 and handing it (or them) to the adult while shifting gaze appropriately, 9/10 opportunities, across communication partners and a variety of food and beverage items. (There are no prompt levels specified, as student is required to initiate her request.)

Explanatory Note

Because individuals with autism evidence a situation-specific learning style, it should not be assumed that learning to request items in one venue will translate to being able to request different types of items in another. Hence, additional short-term objectives should be written in service to annual goals targeting requesting toys, requesting activities, or requesting a break, and the like.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP (Set Two: Requesting/Rejecting Combined)

Short-Term Objective 1

Given the presence of preferred and nonpreferred food and beverage items, student will refuse the nonpreferred item offered (via head shake, signing “no,” gentle push-away gesture, and the like) and when asked, “What do you want?” will request 1 or the other item desired by handing the appropriate picture to the adult, 8/10 opportunities, across different food and beverage choices, and across different people, given direct verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given the presence of several preferred and nonpreferred food and beverage items, student will refuse 2 nonpreferred items offered and when asked, “What do you want?” will request 1 or 2 preferred items by handing the appropriate pictures to the adult 8/10 opportunities, across different food and beverage choices, and across different people, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given the presence of preferred and nonpreferred toys or activities, student will refuse 2 nonpreferred toys or activities offered and when asked, “What do you want?” will request a preferred toy or activity by handing the appropriate picture to the adult 8/10 opportunities, across different toy/activity choices, and across different people, given expectant waiting or indirect verbal cues as needed.

Annual Goal

Student will appropriately refuse nonpreferred items and activities when offered, and will independently request those that are desired by handing an appropriate picture to an adult or peer, across a variety of classroom activities.

Sample PLP for an eight-year-old student with ADHD and S/LI: According to teacher and parent report, although student is able to use a variety of appropriate means to protest/refuse items and activities, due to his impulsivity he only does so in calm, highly structured situations when prompted to do so. Most of the time, he protests or requests termination of activities through the use of undesirable behavior, such as throwing objects or dropping to the floor. His behavior affects his ability to engage in activities with peers in both classroom and extracurricular settings without extensive supervision by staff, and worsens in less-structured settings.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP (Set One: Refusing)

Short-Term Objective 1

When offered nonpreferred items or activities in a calm, preferred setting, student will reject undesired objects or activities by saying “no,” 7/10 opportunities, across different items or activities and people, given manual-sign/gestural cues, as needed.

Short-Term Objective 2

When offered nonpreferred items or activities in a calm, preferred setting, student will reject undesired objects or activities by saying “no,” 8/10 opportunities, across different items or activities and people, given expectant waiting.

Short-Term Objective 3

When offered nonpreferred items or activities in contrived situations in a variety of nonstructured, noisy settings (for example, lunch, recess, physical education), student will reject undesired items or activities by saying “no,” 7/10 opportunities, with manual sign cue to wait before responding.

Annual Goal

When offered a choice of objects or activities, student will reject those that are undesired by saying “no,” independently, 8/10 opportunities across settings and people, with minimal gestural cues as needed.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP (Set Two: Terminating an Activity)

Short-Term Objective 1

Given a STOP card, directions regarding its use, and a calm, structured setting, student will request termination of a nonpreferred activity by saying “stop” or handing the card to the adult, 7/10 opportunities, across a variety of activities and people, given direct verbal and manual-sign cues for stop.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a nonstructured setting (recess or physical education) and informed participants, student will request termination of a semipreferred activity by saying or signing “stop,” 7/10 opportunities, across a variety of activities and people, given direct or indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a nonstructured setting (recess or physical education) and informed participants, student will request termination of a nonpreferred activity by saying or signing “stop,” 8/10 opportunities, across a variety of activities and people, given minimal indirect gestural cueing/expectant waiting (for example, palms up to indicate What are you supposed to do?).

Annual Goal

Student will appropriately request termination of an activity across settings and people, independently, 9/10 opportunities.

Obtaining Attention

Sample PLP for a fourteen-year-old moderately verbal student with ASD: According to clinical observation and teacher report, student is able to effectively communicate her desires during a classroom snack routine when staff is attending to her, or when they specifically ask her what she wants. When staff is not attending to her, however, she will just sit and wait for a prompt. Both her speech-language pathologist and teacher are concerned that she is becoming increasingly prompt-dependent. These difficulties impact student's ability to independently get her needs met in both her special education classroom and in the mainstream settings to which she is assigned.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct teaching, demonstration, and modeling, student will obtain the attention of an adult prior to making a request by tapping the adult's arm or saying his or her name during a proximate activity (for example, snack routine or game), 7/10 opportunities, across different activities and people, given physical assistance and direct verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given planned inattention and waiting, student will obtain the attention of an adult prior to making a request by tapping the adult's arm or saying his or her name during a proximate activity (for example, snack routine or game), 8/10 opportunities, across different activities and people, given indirect verbal or gestural cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given planned inattention and waiting by an informed adult, student will obtain the attention of the adult prior to making a request by raising her hand, 8/10 opportunities, across different activities and people, given manual sign cue to wait as needed.

Annual Goal

Student will obtain the adult's attention prior to making a request by raising her hand and waiting for the adult to respond, independently, 8/10 opportunities, across settings, activities, and people.

Explanatory Notes

Informing/Clarifying

Sample PLP for a ten-year-old student with ADD: Student evidences an impulsive learning style in which she quickly blurts out answers to verbal questions and fails to think through answers on quizzes and tests. She becomes particularly confused when she is required to make judgments about things that, though largely similar, differ in important ways. Her failure to take attributes into account causes her to make careless errors in her written work, tests, and class discussions. As a result, student's grades in several academic subjects have been negatively affected.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction in a referential communication task (barrier game), an array of 10 small stationary objects (for example, 2 “dollhouse” tables, 2 beds, 2 chairs, 2 sinks, and 2 baskets) that differ only in one dimension (for example, size or color), and the directive to listen, student will ask the question, “Which table (chair, and so on)?” (answer: the big one or the red one) when directed to place 10 moveable objects (for example, shoe, doll, apple, and so on) in, on, and under each of the stationary items, 6/10 opportunities, given manual wait sign, direct verbal cue, and teacher correction or praise.

Explanatory Note

The information in parentheses above is offered only for clarification purposes here. It may be omitted in actual short-term objectives.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a barrier game, an array of 10 small stationary objects that differ only in one dimension (for example, size or color), and the directive paired with the manual sign to listen, student will ask the question, “Which [object name]?” when directed to place 10 moveable objects in, on, and under each of the stationary items, 9/10 opportunities, given manual wait sign and indirect verbal cue (“What did you forget?”), and teacher correction or praise.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a barrier game, the manual sign for listen, and an array of 12 small stationary objects that differ in two dimensions (for example, size and color), student will ask the question, “Which [object name?]” when directed to place 12 moveable objects in, on, and under each of the stationary items, 9/10 opportunities, given teacher correction or praise. (For example, in answer to the question, “which chair” the adult responds “the big chair.” However, there are 2 big chairs that differ only in color, requiring the child to ask, “Which big chair?” Answer: the red chair.)

Annual Goal

Given directives involving items that are similar along different dimensions (for example, red pen/blue pen), student will ask the appropriate question to obtain the information that she needs, 9/10 opportunities, across classroom activities, independently.

Negotiating

Sample PLP for a fifteen-year-old student with ED: Student is able to complete academic work with regular breaks; however, he often becomes angry when he needs to put away preferred items in order to return to an academic task. He also has difficulty negotiating with peers in social situations. This difficulty causes considerable disruption in his high school classes; impairs his social relationships; and compromises both the quantity and quality of academic work that he is able to complete.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction in negotiation techniques, and 5 structured “flexible” scenarios that lend themselves to further modifications, student will select the appropriate negotiation strategy (for example, “Please”; “Just a little longer”; “Can I do just one?” and so on) from a group of 3 options presented, 4/5 opportunities, across different people, given direct and indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given 5 structured “flexible” scenarios that lend themselves to further modifications, student will apply the appropriate negotiation strategy in a variety of structured role-play situations with 1 peer and 1 adult, 4/5 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 7 structured “flexible” scenarios that lend themselves to further modifications, student will apply the appropriate negotiation strategy in structured role-play situations with a peer, 6/7 opportunities, given minimal cues, as needed.

Annual Goal

Given a group project containing several opportunities for negotiation, student will apply the appropriate negotiation strategy in the classroom setting, 80% of opportunities, given indirect verbal cues, as needed.

Content Area: Repairing Communication Breakdowns

Obtaining Clarification

Sample PLP for a twelve-year-old student with ASD: Student's speech-language pathologist reports that he communicates for a variety of purposes including obtaining attention, requesting, protesting, and commenting. In fact, he appears to have mastered most of the lower-level pragmatic functions of communication. He experiences difficulty, however, with higher-order functions such as the use of repair strategies (for example, asking for clarification if he doesn't understand something). These difficulties impact student's ability to function in his seventh-grade inclusive classroom setting and in extracurricular activities as well.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction and a variety of situations in which verbal clarification is needed, student will select the appropriate repair-strategy card from a group of three to obtain clarification (repair strategies to include: “Please repeat that”; “What do you mean?”; “I need more information”) to inform the listener of the need for clarification, 4/5 opportunities within a variety of structured role-plays, across different people, given manual sign and direct verbal cues as needed

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a variety of situations in which verbal clarification is needed, student will use repair strategies appropriate to each situation to inform the listener of the need for clarification, 4/5 opportunities in a variety of structured role-plays, across different people, given manual sign and indirect verbal cues as needed.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given contrived situations in which verbal clarification is needed, student will use appropriate repair strategies to inform the listener of the need for clarification, 4/5 opportunities in the classroom setting, given gestural cues as needed.

Annual Goal

Given the need for verbal clarification, student will use appropriate repair strategies in contrived situations to inform the listener of the need for clarification, 4/5 opportunities across academic settings, given expectant waiting and minimal indirect verbal reminders.

Sample PLP for a nine-year-old student with S/LI: Student is able to answer direct questions, but often does not ask questions to obtain information that she needs to carry out assignments. As a result, she frequently misunderstands assignments because she is missing important information. These difficulties negatively impact school performance in her third-grade classroom, and interfere with her ability to complete homework assignments.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given examples, modeling, and a series of props, student will ask questions using Wh- and other question forms in order to obtain needed information in contextually appropriate situations and activities, 8/10 opportunities within a variety of structured role-plays, across different people, given manual sign (for where or what) to cue the question. (For example, the adult directs student to “Put the paper in the folder.” Because student has 3 folders—that is, props—in front of her, she needs to ask, “Which folder?”)

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a series of props, student will ask questions using Wh- and other question forms in order to obtain needed information in contextually appropriate situations and activities, 8/10 opportunities within a variety of structured role-plays, across different people, given expectant waiting.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given contrived “real-world” situations, student will ask questions using Wh- and other question forms in order to obtain needed information in the classroom setting, 8/10 opportunities, with minimal indirect verbal cues.

Annual Goal

Student will ask questions using Wh- and other question forms in order to obtain needed information in contextually appropriate situations and activities, 8/10 opportunities, across academic subjects, given expectant waiting.

Explanatory Note

The use of the phrase contrived “real-world” situations refers to the deliberate structuring of tasks in natural settings. For example, to facilitate generalization to the classroom setting, the adult should deliberately withhold important information or give ambiguous directions for the purpose of creating a need for the student to ask for additional information.

Content Area: Conversational Rules

Reciprocity

Sample PLP for a five-year-old student with ASD and S/LI: Student desires to interact with others but often withdraws because she appears not to know what to say next. She is particularly lacking in the typical social phrases that are used by young children in their play activities. When her teacher tells her what to say, she will repeat it, but often does not use the word or phrase in the next interaction where it is appropriate to do so. This difficulty negatively impacts her ability to participate in classroom activities and to participate effectively in childhood games with peers.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction in 3 common social phrases (for example, “I got it”; “Your turn,” and so on), and accompanying manual sign cues, student will apply these phrases in contextually appropriate activities in role-play situations with 1 peer, 4/5 opportunities, given direct verbal and manual sign cues to use phrases.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given direct instruction in 2 new common social phrases and maintenance of the previously learned 3, each of which are accompanied by manual sign cues, student will apply these phrases in contextually appropriate activities in role-play situations with 1 peer, 4/5 opportunities, given expectant waiting.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a game format, student will apply appropriate social phrases from the 5 previously learned within the context of a familiar game with 2 peers, 4/5 opportunities, given expectant waiting.

Annual Goal

Student will apply social phrases in contextually appropriate activities in the classroom during interactions with peers, 4/5 opportunities, independently or with expectant waiting.

Sample PLP for a fourteen-year-old student with NLD: By teacher and parent report, student appears to enjoy interacting with others. She will frequently approach adults and peers to greet them. After the greeting, however, she appears unsure of how to keep the conversation going. She has the most difficulty with small talk, which significantly impacts her ability to interact socially with peers in extracurricular activities.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction, demonstration, and a series of scenarios, student will select the appropriate “conversation fillers” from 6 options presented, to fill her turn in conversations with at least 1 informed adult in structured role-play situations, for a minimum of 3 turns, given direct verbal cues as needed.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a series of scenarios, student will select appropriate “conversation fillers” from 8 options presented, to fill her turn in conversations with an uninformed adult in structured role-play situations, for a minimum of 4 turns given minimal indirect verbal or gestural cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given manual signs to prompt “conversation filler,” student will fill her turn in conversations with 1 informed peer in structured role-play situations, for 4 turns, given expectant waiting, as needed.

Annual Goal

Student will fill her turn in conversations with 1 adult or peer within the classroom setting, for a minimum of 3–4 turns, with minimal indirect cueing.

Staying on Topic

Sample PLP for a nine-year-old student with ASD: Student is a very verbal child who enjoys discussing topics of interest with others, according to clinical observation and teacher report; however, student has problems carrying on conversations with others when he does not choose the topic. Under these conditions, he has great difficulty staying on topic, as evidenced by his tendency to change the subject (usually to one that centers on his interests) or make tangential comments. This difficulty impacts his ability to communicate effectively with both adults and peers, and is especially off-putting to the latter. Overall, student's difficulties negatively impact his ability to establish relationships with peers, and set him apart from classmates in his inclusive classroom setting.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction in what it means to stay on topic, and a series of discussion topics containing elements that he finds moderately interesting, student will demonstrate the ability to select conversational sentence strips from a group of 3 options that are appropriate to the topics, across 5 topics for 3 turns, 8/10 opportunities, across people, given direct verbal cues paired with manual sign cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a series of discussion topics containing elements that he finds moderately interesting, student will demonstrate the ability to select conversational sentence strips from a group of 3 options that are appropriate to the topics, across 5 previous and 5 new topics for 4 turns, 8/10 opportunities, across people, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a series of discussion topics that he finds minimally interesting, student will demonstrate the ability to stay on topic by filling his conversational turn with statements/questions that are appropriate to the topic under discussion, across 5 new topics for 3 turns in structured role-plays with adults and peers, 4/5 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues.

Annual Goal

Given discussion topics that he finds minimally interesting, student will demonstrate the ability to stay on topic by filling his conversational turn with statements/questions that are appropriate to the topic under discussion, across topics for a minimum of 4 turns in structured role-plays with adults and peers, 4/5 opportunities, independently.

Presuppositional Knowledge

This type of knowledge enables people to adjust what they say (content), as well as the manner in which they express it (style), to the contours of the social situation. For example, one would use a soft voice and speak differently in a hospital intensive care unit than at a baseball game. Similarly, one would adjust the content and manner of expression when speaking to a person in authority rather than with a close friend. The ability to make appropriate presuppositions regarding situational requirements to inform language content is a significant area of deficit in students with ASD and NLD; however, given the impulsivity associated with ADD/ADHD, and the self-focus that is seen in many students with ED, it is our opinion that this area of social cognition is a critically important one in these disability categories as well.

Sample PLP for an eighteen-year-old student with NLD: According to formal testing, observations of her teachers, and parent report, student has an excellent command of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. She is doing very well in her academic setting where adults and peers who know her well accept her social idiosyncrasies. Problems arise, however, in her school-related work-study program. Reportedly, she has made inappropriate personal comments to both her supervisor and customers. Student's lack of appreciation for the situational requirements of the work setting place her at-risk for losing her job.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction regarding “business” versus “personal” talk, demonstration/modeling of appropriate and inappropriate comments, and a series of work-related scenarios, student will select from a multiple-choice format comments appropriate to the scenario, for 7/10 opportunities, given indirect verbal cueing and correction.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a series of work-related scenarios, student will select from multiple-choice format comments appropriate to the scenario, for 8/10 opportunities, independently.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a series of work-related scenarios and a list containing “business-related” and “personal” comments, student will apply appropriate comments in structured role-plays with an adult, 8/10 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues or expectant waiting as needed.

Annual Goal

Given contrived situations based on those previously addressed, student will apply appropriate comments, across conversations with adults in her work-study setting, 4/5 opportunities, given minimal, indirect verbal cueing and correction, as needed.

Sentence Formulation

Sample PLP for an eight-year-old student with S/LI: Student is a verbal child who will often initiate interactions with others. Formal testing and informal assessment indicate, however, that student has significant difficulties with sentence formulation. Specifically, when asked a question, student will often pantomime his response. When cued to use words, he will either give a one-word response, or say that he doesn't know the answer. When student initiates language, his speech is characterized by multiple grammatical errors and difficulty with word order. These problems affect his ability to participate effectively in the classroom curriculum, and adversely affect his grades and relationships with peers.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given a color-coded visual template for subject, verb, and object, and direct instruction in its use, student will answer questions by producing sentences of 3–5 words in length, in the correct order, for 7/10 questions given direct verbal and manual sign cues vis-à-vis use of the template.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a color-coded visual template for subject, verb, and object, student will answer questions by producing sentences of 5–7 words in length, in the correct order, for 8/10 different questions, given indirect verbal or gestural cues vis-à-vis use of the template.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a color-coded visual template for subject, verb, and object, student will answer questions by producing sentences from 7–10 words in length, in the correct order, for 8/10 different questions, given minimal gestural cues or expectant waiting.

Annual Goal

Given a visual color-coded template for subject, verb, and object, student will answer questions by producing sentences of 7 or more words in the correct order, within structured language arts activities in the classroom for 8/10 opportunities, given gestural cueing to use template as needed.

Content Area: Narrative Development

Generating Written Narratives

Sample PLP for an eleven-year-old student with NLD and ED: While student presents with strengths in verbal skills, his narrative skills cluster at the four- to five-year-old level, according to informal assessment tasks. His narratives are characterized by disorganized heaps of information rather than a sequentially organized series of events. These difficulties strongly impact student's ability to generate written narratives across academic subjects in his inclusive classroom setting, and generally interfere with his ability to demonstrate what he knows on quizzes and tests.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given a color-coded story format with accompanying pictures, and instruction in its use, student will generate a complete, written narrative containing the elements of character, setting, time, problem event, and solution across 3/5 stories, given direct and indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a color-coded story format with accompanying pictures, student will generate a complete, written narrative containing the elements of character, setting, time, problem event, and solution across 4/5 different stories, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a color-coded story format with accompanying pictures, student will generate a complete, written narrative containing the elements of character, setting, time, problem event, and solution across 9/10 different stories, independently.

Annual Goal

Given a color-coded story format with the words character, setting, time, problem event, and solution written on the segments, student will generate written book reports containing those elements in the classroom setting, independently.

Explanatory Note

Independent performance is still contingent upon the underlying condition: the use of a color-coded story format. Use of this formatting tool is considered an accommodation to enable successful student performance.

Narrative Discourse

Sample PLP for a seven-year-old student with ADHD: Student presents with excellent decoding skills that place her at grade level in this area. When assessed using a multiple-choice format, she even appears to be able to comprehend “straightforward” (that is, factual) information reasonably well. Problems occur, however, when she is asked to retell a story, or a past event. Under these circumstances, student is “all over the board”—that is, she mentions things out of sequence or fails to mention them at all. This difficulty impedes student's ability to participate in language arts and reading activities in her second-grade classroom, as well as in other activities involving narrative discourse.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction in using a time line template for sequencing, and visual supports corresponding to a recent past event (for example, photographs of a field trip or other event), student will place the pictures in the appropriate sequence as she retells the event, incorporating the following elements: participants, setting, time, and at least 1 activity, across 5 events, 4/5 opportunities for all elements, given direct verbal and manual sign cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a time line template and visual supports corresponding to a recent past event, student will retell the event, incorporating the following elements: participants, setting, time, and at least 2 activities, across 5 new and 5 previous events, 4/5 opportunities for all elements, given indirect verbal or gestural cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a time line template and a checklist of story elements (character, setting, time, and activities), student will reformulate a story that has just been read to her, by placing pictures that incorporate the story elements on the template in the appropriate sequence, and then retelling the story across 5 different stories, 4/5 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues.

Annual Goal

Given a time line template and a checklist of story elements, student will verbally retell a story or event in the appropriate time sequence, incorporating the elements of character, setting, time, and activities across 10 different stories or events in the language arts curriculum, 8/10 opportunities, with minimal gestural cueing to use template/checklist.

General Teaching Tips and Strategies for Communication, Expression, and Narrative Development

1. Set up or structure situations to encourage communication. Some examples:

  • Snack time (wait for the student to request; give small portions; wait for the student to obtain your attention, and so on)
  • Place needed/desired items out of reach (for example, glue, crayons, a favorite toy, and so on) so that the student has a reason to communicate.
  • Offer the student things that you know he or she doesn't like in order to elicit an appropriate refusal (pragmatic protest function).
  • Skip a desired part of a well-known routine, so that the student has a reason and opportunity to supply needed information, or to request continuance.
  • Model commenting behavior and provide activities that are interesting and motivating to the student to facilitate spontaneous comments.
  • Increase salience wherever and whenever possible (for example, use color to highlight information, make things “larger than life”).
  • Bring in a motivating toy, pet, or interesting object to provide both an impetus and context for communication and expression.
  • “Misunderstand” or “play dumb” to create a need for the student to provide expanded input.
  • Follow the student's lead in terms of his or her interests.

2. Use referential communication tasks (that is, barrier games) to demonstrate and teach the power of communication in a motivating context. These can be designed by speech-language pathologists and are excellent vehicles for use in speech-language therapy and social, play, and leisure activities with peers.

3. Use demonstration and modeling of target responses (for example, nonverbal behavior, words, and phrases) whenever possible so that the student has a model of the appropriate behavior.

4. Use visual supports such as manual signs and sentence strips to facilitate the use of longer, more sophisticated utterances.

5. Give the student access to a variety of means of communication that he or she can use to initiate interactions, and be sure to reinforce by responding!

6. Use manual signs to help facilitate both word retrieval and sentence expansion.

7. Provide students with multimodal language input and feedback, including, but not limited to, the use of natural gestures, manual signs, pictures, written words, and so on, because they help facilitate comprehension and processing, which form the basis for meaningful expression.