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Phonics... I was convinced that the autistic child had an inability to process partiality and as such, unless the "parts" of the "whole" were understood, the "whole" (i.e., words or utterances) could not be understood. A "normal" child learned that a "dog" was this funny thing with fur and a tail. That, if mom pointed to "a dog" and said: "dog", the lesson had been learned... the label given, the association made. For a "normal child", the association was simple. But, I was of the opinion that for an autistic child, the "association" as to "what a dog was" could not be made until the "word itself - the label of dog" was first figured out. I was not saying that each label must first be understood before an association could be made. What I was saying, however, was that in the beginning, as the autistic child was just embarking on his journey to learn language, the concept of "where a label came from", first had to be understood. Once the concept of "a label" was understood... then, the child would easily learn any label given. To understand where the "label" came from, the autistic child first had to understand the phonics behind the label... the sounds that made up the label. To understand the phonics behind the label, the autistic child first had to understand that letters had sounds. To understand the concept that letters had sounds, the autistic child first had to understand that letters were symbols that represented something... and that this "something" was the code that needed to be broken! To say: "dog" to an autistic child who did not have an understanding of "the code" behind language (the alphabet) provided for him only an utterance he could not understand. This utterance...."dddddogggg"... what did that it tell the autistic brain? In my opinion, not much! There were "sounds" there, but to the autistic child they were "meaningless sounds" since he had not been taught "the breakdown" of each sound, what it was, what it "said", what it "meant", "how to put the sounds together", etc. But, if the child was first taught the alphabet, A, then B, then C... there was order there. Then, the child could learn "A" says "a" (as in apple), sometimes "a" (as in cake), "B" says "buh", and so on, then, there was order there, something the child could relate to... and not only was order provided but in understanding the alphabet, the code was literally broken to unlock all other aspects of communication! I spent a great deal of time just "labeling" everything for Zachary... that had its good points and its bad points. The good was in that Zachary had the opportunity to identify "more parts of his world". The bad was in that I was so focused on having him "talk", that I failed to see the "concept" had already been learned...the concept of labels... and so, once learned, he was ready for the next step. I did not see that until much, much later. I spent a great deal of time just "labeling" when I should have been moving on to phonics! It was fine to label as many things as possible... but once the "concept" of labels had been learned the child would easily learn "all the labels" when they were uttered... and so, the focus now needed to turn to "the next step"... to not stay in the "trap" of simply labeling. It was wonderful to hear Zachary say each and every new word, but, for him, saying new words was not the issue once that "task" or "concept" was learned... the issue was to move on and show how "that part" fit into the next step in communication and the rest of the whole... to eventually move toward actual conversation. Zachary could grasp a concept very quickly... and so, it was always important to remember going forward, to "move on" and not stay fixed on one task once that task or concept had been learned (as in this case, "labeling"). It was probably close to 8 months later that I, personally, came to the realization that Zachary was able to "move on" to go to the next logical step in language... phonics. This was one of those: "If only I had seen this sooner... he could have moved on more quickly" issues for me, and I suspect many parents. I had parents tell me that even though their child knew his letters, schools often recommended not bothering to teach phonics until in the appropriate grade. Parents whose children were in pre-kindergarden and knew the alphabet for example, were told to wait until kingergarden or even first grade before tackling phonics. I could not disagree more! Once the autistic child had mastered the alphabet, parents needed to move on as quickly as possible to phonics. Waiting for "other kids" was ridiculous. The autistic child needed to move forward as quickly as possible in those areas of strength... where the code had been broken, because unlike other children, he would be much more challenged than his peers in areas that did not have an "obvious code" - areas such as socialization and conversation. While "normal children" were still learning the alphabet, the autistic child who had mastered it at an earlier age could then use "that time" to focus on areas of weakness instead of being bored reviewing something he already knew and more importantly, falling further behind in areas that were already more difficult. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with pulling an autistic child out of class when his peers were learning concepts he already knew... and putting him in a class with younger children to work on issues with socialization, etc. Schools may not particularly like this suggestion, but, this was not a matter of what was "more convenient" for the school... it was a matter of "what was in the best interest of the child"! I had wasted a lot of time by not "moving on to phonics" and I hoped that other parents would avoid making this one mistake I very much regretted in terms of how I worked with Zachary on language issues! I finally did realize my mistake, however.. and there was no "more" time to be wasted "feeling bad" about that... it was time to move on...for both Zachary and I. With the concept of "symbols" learned - symbols as “things” representing letters, shapes, numbers, I then decided to focus on phonics. Note that this "next step", in our case, did not involve "pictures" or flash cards of any kind. Pictures were still only part of the concept of symbols... and once that concept had been taught, even if only with the alphabet symbols, the next step to language in my opinion, was phonics. Picture symbols could be used to expand the child’s knowledge of symbols, but in my opinion, once the alphabet was recognized as “a code” and the concept of “this represents this” was learned, it was time to move on to the next concept – phonics! Undoubtedly, in autistic children, communication could occur without an understanding of "the alphabet" first, as had been expressed by many parents who said their children could read but had no concept of the alphabet, but without that understanding progress was far less effective since the "code" to communication had yet to be broken. Systems using "words" or pictures on cards were not the best way to start teaching communication to the autistic. Sure, over time, you could certainly make a child memorize that the letters c-a-t spell "cat", especially if reward systems were used and have the "association" made, however, I think it was much, much more productive to go the way of the alphabet and then phonics...based on a very specific teaching method that involved teaching the alphabet as a “whole” via the use of colors, etc., because for the autistic child, in my view, it was a matter of simply teaching "the concepts" behind language - of helping the child "break the code" - and once the code was understood, the child would understand all "picture/word associations" - 10 pictures or words would be no more easy or difficult than 1000 because once the "concept" was learned, the autistic child could easily generalize it to understand "all similar things"... in this case, all picture/word associations! I was convinced there was a right way and a wrong way to teach the concept of the alphabet. This was what I had found to be true in my own son, Zachary. Zachary knew his alphabet, now our focus would be phonics! I wondered about the best way to teach Zachary phonics for about 5 minutes... and again, I think I just "stumbled" upon the best way right from the start. So, how do you teach phonics to the autistic child? Surprisingly, for Zachary, it had been much simpler than I would ever have imagined. It had not been that hard and I did not need a lot of expensive materials to do it. It had been quite the opposite actually! I now knew for a fact that Zachary knew his letters, so I simply took each letter and went through the alphabet saying: "A" says "ah" (as in apple), sometimes "a" (as in cake), "B" says "buh", C says "cuh" sometimes ssss (as in city). Note: I never told him the "as in" part I provide here in brackets... I just provided the letter and the sound… if more than one sound existed for the letter, I would say the first sound, join it with the word "sometimes" for any additional sounds: So, for example, I would say: A says ah, sometimes a. That's it.... nothing else... no other words, no associations (for example, "as in apple"), etc.... just the sounds for each letter...THE SOUND ONLY - THAT WAS IT! I gave “the letter – the sound” only – the lowest level to phonics – with no “word examples”! In no time, Zachary could rhyme though the entire alphabet providing me with the appropriate letter sound(s) for each letter. Below, I have provided in table format how I taught Zachary his phonics verbally. There were a ton of materials out there to teach children phonics... and some were rather expensive. However, any person who knew how to read knew the letter sounds... and so, I provided those I used for Zachary in the tables below. Teaching the concept of "letters having sounds" was all that I wanted to do... and that, I could do without a book or fancy materials. Below, I provided each basic letter sound for readers as well as consonant blends and digraphs most often used. These provided more than enough to get any parent started with phonics. For vowels... I did not provide the "label" of short verses long until much later... I ended up trying to do that later on... although I found that once Zachary knew the sounds, it really did not matter if he knew "this was a long a or a short a"... most adults do not even know that. :o) For those parents who did not know the difference between short and long vowels, the mystery was simple: if the letter sounded like the "letter of the alphabet"... that was the long sound for the vowel - the other was the short vowel sound! In terms of Zachary knowing the difference, this was not a "biggy" in my book as far as having to teach that right away. Teaching the label of "short" verses long could come later... after all, anything having to do with "labels" was quickly learned by Zachary, and so, I knew this would not be a huge stumbling block later on. Basic letter sounds were as follows - remember, I would not "say out loud" anything I provided in brackets.... I said just the letter and the sound - that was all I provided for Zachary... with a "sometimes" if there was more than one sound. This was key to Zachary quickly picking up the concept of phonics. Also important was to note that for Zachary, I taught phonics "by ear" not "by sight". By that I mean that I did not use flash cards or other materials (paper, blackboards, etc.) of any type... I sounded out each letter sound(s) for him. The reason I believed you had to "sound" out the phonics was because, again, flash cards, pictures, associations, etc. brought additional "parts" to the situation whereas letter sounds were just that... basic sounds - so there was no "additional interference", no unnecessary distractions to the lesson being taught! Also, keep in mind that most phonics materials out there may not teach phonics "in order of the alphabet"... taking each letter, in the order it appeared in the alphabet, and providing that letter's sound(s) one at a time - in the correct order. Doing phonics the way I did them below, in alphabetical order, provided for Zachary that continuation of the parts making the whole... the alphabet letters making a sound... later on, I could easily "mix them up" for him. For parents who wanted to try teaching their children phonics, I encouraged you to practice a little with the chart below before actually undertaking the task. You wanted to be fairly "fluid" as you start calling out the letters and their associated sounds. I learned that the "hard way" and found it confusing even for me to keep this straight before I had gone through this a couple of times... I wanted to keep the long and short vowel sounds, for example, always in the proper order... always saying the "short" sound first, and then the long sound. I knew that would later help Zachary understand the difference... that the "long sound" was always the "second one mommy said for that letter", for example. Although I had not personally used The Phonics Handbook by Sue Lloyd (ISBN 1-870946 08 –1) in the sense that I did not teach Zachary phonics using this method involving motion, in writing this text, I did look at the Phonics Handbook for “the basics” in terms of “sounds”, “blends”, etc. As such, although I just used the “letter + sound” approach to teach Zachary phonics, the information provided in this section based on “sounds to use” and “what the basic sounds were” in terms of things like blends, etc., was very much information from materials provided in the Phonics Handbook, by Sue Lloyd. For those parents interested in purchasing this excellent guide, the reference for The Phonics Handbook was as follows: Lloyd, Sue, The Phonics Handbook, Jolly Learning, Ltd, 1996 (ISBN 1 987946 08 1). As I reviewed the information in this book as I wrote this text, I soon came to realize that this text was indeed a fantastic tool for the autistic. As such, if there was one “book” I felt to be “the best” for teaching language basics in children with autism – without a question – this was it! Thus, even though my materials “looked different”, much of the content in the information provided in this section was based on materials put together by Sue Lloyd in her Phonics Handbook – a handbook that in my opinion, was one of the best tools on the market for teaching language in all children, but in my opinion, one of the very best tools especially for teaching language in the child with autism or any other person having difficulty in either producing or understanding language. I had not used the “motion” in her teaching materials with Zachary, but I had used the basic “phonics information” in terms of knowing for example “what blends to teach”, etc. and as such, much of her information was included/integrated in what “I had done”. Granted, I had used other phonics materials also, but, without a doubt, if I had to “go back” and “start over” with Zachary, I would have made greater use of materials presented in this text.
I sounded the letter sounds out for Zachary a few times... always working my way through the entire alphabet. Since Zachary knew "of the alphabet", he understood its parts... he understood the alphabet started with "A" and ended with "Z"... and so, I wanted to provide the continuity from A to Z without stopping in the middle. In fact, if I did stop in the "middle" Zachary got upset and I had to continue until the entire alphabet had been completed. Within a day or two, I then started to ask him to tell me the sound... and he could! I would call out the letter and say, for example: "A says... " and he would complete the phrase by providing the appropriate sound... if there were more than one sound for a letter, after he said the first, I simply added "sometimes...." and he completed the phrase by saying the second sound. Soon, he could do so even when I "mixed them up"... he had learned the lesson... each letter had a specific sound(s) associated with it... that was all that mattered. Once the concept was learned, it was understood and the concept of "letters having sounds" could now be generalized to "combined letters"... or words! Once Zachary understood and knew the basic letter sounds, more sounds could then be added... in the form of short words and later basic blends and digraphs. Basic blends and digraphs were provided below. Again, I taught these sound in the same manner as shown above. Once Zachary knew his basic letter sounds, these came easily - the concept was the same... each letter had a sound, so it was just a matter of putting the sounds together. For digraphs (like "ch", all I had to do was say: "c, h says... and say the sound"... that was all it took! The basics blends taken from Sue Lloyd’s The Phonics Handbook included: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, tr, ch, sh, th, wh, kn So, for all of these, I proceeded just as I had with the letters... For example, I would say: K N says N (as in knee) Note: I could have easily used the concept of equations to teach this same thing, but I saw a problem with that. For example, if I said: K + N = N Zachary would catch on to that too... but, the more I thought about that, the more I thought equations should be kept for learning math as much as possible... for me to introduce the concept of an equation here may confuse him down the road... that was still too far ahead for me... but, something I did want to mention. So, my preference was to use: KN says N. Then there were a few more complicated sounds to learn - again, this information was based on that provided by Sue Lloyd in The Phonics Handbook.
Finally, certain sounds could be written in more than one way: For example, for each of the ways in which the sound could be written, I would say to Zachary: ER says "er". IR says "er". UR says "ur". So as to not confuse a child too much, however, I recommended either introducing these on separate days, fairly far apart or using an equation system as shown in this table. Again, these "basic sounds/words" were taken from materials put together by Sue Lloyd in The Phonics Handbook.
Note that the important thing in the “equation” was to emphasize to the child that the sound was equal even though the spelling was different. Zachary could easily grasp that concept. This provided enough on "phonics" to get all parents started on the task of teaching phonics to a child. As mentioned earlier, the one thing I had not noticed until almost the completion of this book, was the fact that in teaching phonics, although I had not realized it at the time, motion had also played a part… in that Zachary had learned his letters via his Alphabet Train video… a video that involved considerable motion. Thus, in my view, the alphabet had to first be taught using motion, and color, and then phonics would come easily! I had not personally used The Phonics Handbook to teach Zachary his “first phonics” – the “basics before blends”, although I did go back later to use the information provided in this text to supplement what I had done. My sister-in-law had used this method and for her child, it had worked wonders. So, for Zachary, I knew that “the motion method” described in this text had not been involved in teaching him phonics. Clearly, for Zachary, the “sounding out” of phonics had been how he had learned “basic phonics” at first. Yet, the more I came to understand, the more I saw why The Phonics Handbook and its “motion method” was absolutely key. The critical link between The Phonics Handbook and the “alphabet train video” was that of MOTION! The Phonics Handbook used hand motions to teach sounds…the Alphabet Train video used motion to teach the concept of letters and their names. Motion – I was convinced was – like sound – a KEY element in teaching both the alphabet and phonics and I suspected, that in teaching the alphabet, color had also played a critical role for Zachary! The one thing I did forget to mention in my first book (Saving Zachary: The Death And Rebirth Of A Family Coping With Autism) as it related to phonics, was that I also used a video called: Learn To Read With Phonics/Mrs. Phipps and Snoothy. One website that sold this video was http://www.videolearning.com/S0702.HTM. This company sold over 15,000 videos. The one I was talking about was item 10-7060. This was an absolutely excellent video for teaching letters and phonics. On this video, letters were written out carefully to show the child exactly how the letter was made (upper and lower case) and each letter's sound was then clearly given. Zachary did watch this a few times, but he really got the idea behind phonics simply by my calling out the letter sounds as done above. The video was simply something I used to reinforce the concept of phonics while I got to relax a little. This video costs $30.00. You may want to check with your local library ... or local schools. If they do not have these same products, they probably have at least something similar… Zachary knew all his letter sounds before watching this video simply based on my “sounding them out”… but, this video was good in that it also carefully showed how to make each upper and lower case letter too! So, the phonics video had not been involved in his actually “learning” the phonics. Finally, once Zachary knew these sounds for "letters", I could then move on to the next step... WORDS! Another great resource from Mrs. Phipps for this topic is: Learn To Read: Volume 2 This video dealt with soundable words, repeated vocabulary, word groups and word families. Five stories were acted out by children as Mrs. Phipps sounds out each word as it appeared on the screen, read the sentence, and then allowed time for the children to read. This was item no. 01-4203 (65 min. $ 29.95). Although I had not personally used this one, another parent of an autistic child suggested it as an excellent video, too! Buying resources such as these can get rather expensive. As such, I encouraged parents to split the cost of such materials among support group members, etc. and to “create your own library as a group”. I also would not “stock up” on a ton of resources until you knew your child had mastered the first levels that needed to be mastered before moving on to the next and buying the “resources” for that. |
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