Sentence Compartmentalization Via Bubble Graphs
So, how do you put a sentence into "compartments"?
The answer was in what I called "bubble graphs". This concept was based on something I myself had learned when I was in 4th grade. I modified the concept to make it more applicable for the autistic - specifically! I did not believe this concept was still taught in schools, but it was a fantastic way to teach the "parts" of a sentence... for any child - autistic or not!
Before we get into the concept of bubble graphs, I wanted to emphasize to all parents to read my section on the importance of colors in the life of the autistic child. I believed that colors and shapes added extra elements or "parts" to bubble graphs that further help solidify the "compartmentalization of a sentence" for the autistic child... and as such, I would encourage all parents to make use of colors and shapes if they decided to try this. Note that sentence parts should have the same color and shape. For example all information related to the subject should look the same in terms its shape and color used. This in my opinion, helped to group that sentence part into a whole of its own... apart from the rest of the sentence. As such, I decided to use the following shapes and color codes with Zachary:
Red oval = subject info (article, subject, adjective), blue square = verb info (verb, adverb), green rectangle = object of the verb info or object of the preposition (depending on how technical you want to get at this stage – answers who, what, when, where, why, how – here, it was “how” in the sense of, for example, pulling with something verses the “how” you would see as an adverb, such as “pulled slowly”), brown hexagon = preposition info, purple cross = conjunction info.
Note: There were two types of bubble graphs presented for each sentence in the examples below… part “a” and part “b”. There was a tendency to move on to “part b” quickly – perhaps simply because these bubble graphs were so much fun to do – but, as with everything in teaching the autistic, I believed the concept presented in “part a” had to be well understood first, before moving on to “part b” and actually trying to “break out” the bubbles for labeling purposes. The key in everything was always to make sure the lowest building blocks were well laid before moving up in terms of going on to the next concept. If the lower building blocks were not properly laid the foundation to teaching language and conversation would not be as strong and as such, I wanted to caution parents against the inherent desire to “move along quickly”. I found I came much better at gauging Zachary’s pace in this area… I did not want to move too slowly (as I had done with labeling), but I did not want to move too quickly either (as I had done with teaching money – see Teaching Money section for more on that and how I think this needs to be taught)! :o)
Using The Bubble Graph Concept...
To Show How The Parts (Words) Fit Together To Form The Whole (The Sentence)
I used the following three sentences in working with Zachary - the first being the simplest, the last, the most difficult.
1. The train pulled into the station.
2. The long train pulled slowly into the station and was loaded.
3. The long steam train pulled slowly and carefully into the station and was loaded with logs, cars, trucks and coal.
The first sentence would be represented as follows in a bubble graph:
Before I went any further, I provided a basic list of prepositions and conjunctions for parents as basic review. Teaching this concept to Zachary necessitated I have a basic understanding of grammar... nothing complicated... just the very basics! :o)
Prepositions And Conjunctions
Prepositions include: above, across, after, around, at, before, behind, below, beside, between, by, down, during, for, from, in, inside, into, of, off, on, out, over, through, to, under, up, with.
Conjunctions include: and, but, or
An excellent reference/workbook for parents was that of Wanda C. Phillips' "Easy Grammar" series: http://www.homeschoolbooksource.com/EasyGrammarDailyGrams.html. It provided a basic overview for grades 2/3 that went over key grammar concepts. But, any basic grammar book would do if parents felt they needed to "brush up" on grammar.
There were several key things the "bubble graph" representation did for the autistic child. Actually, this concept could be used for any child… and as such, would be an excellent way to help integrate the autistic into classes with their peers.
This graph took the sentence and broke it into pieces... its parts!
Note: When I was young, all we used were "bubbles" or ovals... I varied that concept a little, because I thought that a different shape and colors for each "word type" or "sentence part" would be more useful to the autistic child. Variety in shape and color, I believed, would truly help reinforce these concepts.
Also note that I showed "ideas" as parts to the whole. For example, the concept of "into the station" was left together... it conveyed one idea... and answered one question: The train pulled where? Into the station. This should greatly help with further sentence analysis in terms of actual labeling, etc., later on. Likewise, at this point in time, the subject information was all left into "one bubble"... the words "the" and "train" belonged together. By doing this, I hoped to help Zachary group ideas or concepts. I could then pull them out when it came time to label the "types of words". For now though, in order to understand conversation, what mattered was the understanding that sentences were simply small “parts” lumped together and that each “part” consisted of an "idea".
When the time comes to label the parts, this sentence would look as shown below in 1b… again, I believed “part a” had to be mastered before moving on to this level.
What the bubble graph concept did was that it provided a means by which the child could mentally compartmentalize a sentence as it was being said... and I hoped that this would help Zachary, and other autistic children to remember what had been said more easily during actual conversation or teaching. The concept was really quite simple and it was one I could build on as the sentence became more and more complicated and as the Zachary grew and learned more about grammar... about the concept of prepositions, conjunctions, phrases, etc. The key for the parent was just to start doing as much "labeling" as possible... to start with the basics and then to expand from there!
For example, in sentence no. 2, the sentence was slightly more difficult. Here, I added an adjective (long), and adverb (slowly), a conjunction (and) and another verb (was loaded). In spite of the greater difficulty, however, the concept remained the same.
2a. The long train pulled slowly into the station and was loaded.
So, this was basically, the same concept as in sentence 1... with just a few more words added. As far as the "and was loaded", this was where I was taught the "second verb" should go when I was a child. However, if that was too confusing for Zachary, I would not, at this point, have had a problem with moving the arrows to go from "into the station" to "and was loaded" instead of in between "pulled slowly" and "was loaded". The idea was just to get Zachary to "grasp" the ideas in the sentence. To try to develop conversation, I just wanted to ensure the concept of "compartmentalization" of parts (words/phrases) to the whole (the sentence) was understood.
Expanding sentence 2 for the "labeling stage" would give us 2b as shown below (again, this only needed to be done much later... when Zachary was fully comfortable with part "a" of graphs 1, 2 and 3 - and understood the concept of compartmentalizing "ideas" very well):
Now, each part of the sentence could be labeled for Zachary. Again, labeling, in my view would come after the concept of "ideas" within a sentence was learned. In school, most children probably learned this stuff in 2nd or 3rd grade. Since Zachary was only 5, I figured I had time (although, at the time I started doing these exercises with him, again, my enthusiasm got the best of me – again!). But, as I was practicing all these graphs with him, I tried to make sure I labeled for him as much as I could as we work (keeping it to subject info, verb info, object of the verb info was the best way to start). If I saw I was getting ahead of what Zachary could grasp, I simply had to slow down on the "full breakout" and work with the simpler "grouped" ideas graph (the first graph for each sentence). It really depended on Zachary as to how fast we would get to the "full breakout" and "full labeling" of articles (i.e., the), nouns (i.e., train), adjectives (i.e., long), verbs (i.e., pulled), adverbs (i.e., slowly), prepositions (i.e., into), and object of the verb (i.e., station... with associated adjectives, articles that go along with "station").
Now for sentence 3. This was, again, the same concept - just a little more complicated.
3a. The long steam train pulled slowly and carefully into the station and was loaded with logs, cars, truck and coal.
Note that no matter how difficult the sentence became, the "ideas" were grouped together, to facilitate comprehension and provide that "compartmentalization" of sentence parts I believed could help Zachary with actual conversation as it helped him understand the parts to the whole.
NOTE: As I did these examples on a chalkboard and worked with Zachary, I noticed he became confused with the sentence flow... that was easily fixed by a simple arrow change... now the arrow flowed exactly with the sentence... from "into the station" to "and". Zachary easily grasped the concept of bubble graphs. He was truly fascinated by it and enthusiastically answered with the correct answer when asked: "what goes in this bubble?"... so, I was sure this concept would work well for him! I had done this sentence with Zachary the day I first introduced the concept of bubble graphs to him. As usual, I always had a tendency to “get ahead of myself” when I saw how well Zachary grasped certain concepts. I literally had done all 6 of these bubble graphs with him in a matter of an hour or so. As with everything, the "complexity" of the sentence made no real difference because once the concept was learned, it could be applied to any sentence. I did encourage parents to start with simple sentences first, as I did however, to let the concept be understood in its easiest form first and to really work with “ideas” first as opposed to what was shown in part “b” of each example. I planned on “going back” a little to make sure Zachary truly understood the “subject” verses the “verb” info, etc., and I knew that right now, he did not have that understanding… although he certainly loved making these graphs. :o)
Zachary did have a fantastic memory though…a week later, Zachary was able to recall the entire last sentence from memory, in perfect order with no visual whatsoever! Truly impressive for a child who could barely recall a sentence when it was spoken to him in “conversation” right now… but, I knew this concept would ultimately help him with overall conversation issues! Thus, if I could teach him to do this for all sentences as he heard them, to automatically "compartmentalize them", I believed this would greatly help with his comprehension of language and his ability to actually hold a conversation and respond in "bigger sentences" than one or two word sentences as had been the case in the past. :o)
The idea for parents here was simply to experiment and do what worked best for your child. The above, 3a, was better for "idea comprehension" and "sentence" comprehension in terms of "flow" than was 2a ... and "idea comprehension" was the first objective! The exact label (see 2a for “proper” label of that arrow going to “and” as it had been taught to me as a child) could come later once Zachary understood the concept of sentence parts and what each represented. He had after all, just recently only had his 5th birthday – so I still had some time to get these concepts across. :o)
Finally, for the "full blown" labeling stage, sentence 3 would appear as shown below in 3b.
3. The long steam train pulled slowly and carefully into the station and was loaded with logs, cars, trucks and coal.
Note the changes I made to the flow here. This was slightly different from the way I was taught to break a sentence down into its parts, but, I believed this worked better for the autistic child... at least in the beginning. Actual proper labeling was not that big of an issue in that once the concept of "ideas being grouped" was understood (part "a" to examples 1, 2, and 3) it was much easier to "tag the label" to the idea. Autistic children strived on labels. Shifting the visual representation of “parts” in and of itself did not change the actual “label” of those parts, and hence "shifting them around", in my view, was not that big a deal. Once the concept and the labels were put together, it should be much easier to shift things as needed based on what seemed to work best for the child.
Again, note that I had switched the arrow between "into the station" and the word “and” leading to the next verb in order to facilitate Zachary's comprehension. When Zachary was ready for exact labeling, that arrow could be moved to its “proper spot” as in 2a... but, at this stage it was fine like this since it helped keep the ideas or “parts” together and helped with sentence flow, allowing Zachary to focus on the concept of “ideas” to language/ conversation. The shapes maintained the concept of "groups" of similar things (i.e., all red oval items referred to the subject, all blue square items referred to the verb, etc.).
Providing this consistency in labeling via the shapes and/or color would greatly help Zachary as he moved from "idea groups" to "labeling of words within an idea".
So, to recap, I would suggest doing "bubble graphs" with "ideas" lumped together first and ensuring that concept was well grasped (graphs 1a, 2a, and 3a type stuff) to help the child with "categorization" of sentence parts and ideas and then, later down the road, I would get into the full blown "labeling" (graphs 1b, 2b and 3b) of sentence parts as shown above. Note, there was nothing wrong with starting to label, subject items, verb items, etc., almost right away as long as the child was grasping the "categorization" of each group of "ideas" (i.e., the subject info, the verb info, etc.). Indeed, Zachary actually showed great interest when I actually "blew out" the bubbles for labeling purposes. The entire concept of bubble graphs fascinated him... understandably so... since before him were the keys to unlocking yet another code for language... sentence parts!
Once the "ideas" or “parts” were captured visually, the actual exact labeling of sentence parts could really take place, and in my opinion, truly move the child forward in mastering language and conversation.
As with everything, when the child was ready for the actual "labeling" of everything that "labeling" of specific sentence parts needed to take on a specific order to help the child see how the "parts" (word types, such as noun, adjective, verb, adverb, etc.) fit into the "whole" (the sentence). Each word type (i.e., noun, verb, etc.) needed to be specifically defined. For example, a noun was a person, place or thing.
Providing labels to sentence parts would further help Zachary grasp the concept of language. This was a good reference for teaching language basics.
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/grammar.htm
The concept of bubble graphs as shown above could then be expanded specifically to teach grammar or actual word types such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
For example, for nouns, a bubble graph could be made to show "nouns" in the top bubble with that bubble having arrows to three separate bubbles below: persons, places or things. Each of those bubbles (persons, places, things) could then be made into bubbles of their own with examples of each below in yet more bubbles. For example, under a "top bubble" for "person", you could add arrows to a bubble below with the words: mother, father, sister, brother, doctor, teacher, Zachary, Andrew, Anika, etc. The same could be done with "places"... with words in the lower bubble including things like: beach, park, home, school, Chicago, Arizona, work, etc. Likewise, the same concept can be used for "things".
The concept of the bubble graph was a very powerful tool for the autistic child in helping him to break the code to the meaning of sentences and "how they worked". If I found that Zachary was having too much trouble grasping idea groups, I would simply try to start by labeling the various word types and seeing if that worked better instead (i.e., making bubbles to define nouns, etc. as explained above).
For the absolute genius in labeling sentence types, this was a fun link that would surely keep any little genius from being bored!
http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm
Note that in labeling actual sentence word types, I had a specific order in mind.... first the noun... then anything related to the noun... like the adjective (big, fast, etc.) or the article (the, a, etc.). I would not move on to the next "type of word" (i.e., a verb), until all types of words relating specifically to the first type (the noun) had first been identified (i.e., the adjective, the article) and their association to the first type of word, the noun, carefully shown and defined.
Finally, the next step would be to take the same sentences you had previously used and to "move them around" to show how simply changing the order of the words could change sentence meaning as well. Again, I would use the bubble graphs to do this.
If you think of the "building blocks" approach... it was my belief that language should be taught as follows to the autistic child:
1. Start with the alphabet (using songs, colors, border type posters, etc.)
2. Show the child that letters had sounds.
Note that I did not say: Tell the child each letter had "a" sound. That would be incorrect since some letters had more than one sound. To say each letter had "a" sound would introduce confusion for the child when "another sound for that letter was taught"... and I believe that once "labeled" as "each letter had "a" sound", you would have a very difficult time undoing that label showing only "one sound association". That was why I felt my approach to phonics had worked so well with Zachary… I gave him all the sounds for each letter at once, simply using the word “sometimes” between the letter sounds! By introducing all the basic sounds for one letter all at once, I did not “surprise” Zachary by trying to introduce “additional sounds” for the same letter. So, the key was to say: "letters have sounds"...and to say that a letter can have 1, 2 or maybe even 3 or 4 sounds… and to simply join those sounds with the word “sometimes”, as explained in my section on Phonics.
I would work on showing the child the sound(s) for each basic letter by saying them out loud... going through the entire alphabet each time. That provided continuity for the child. In addition, it was less stressful. To stop in the middle of the alphabet may prove stressful for a child who could not cope with partiality, what I believed to be the root of almost all problems we saw in autistic children. With practice, the child would see the "label" to each letter and sound association, and as with everything, that "sound" would become an entity in and of itself and so, as time went on, it became easier to go through sounds "out of order" and to mix up the alphabet. From the time I started to teach Zachary sounds, to the time I could mix the letters up took only a matter of days.
3. The next step would be to show the child that you could put letters together, to make new sounds (digraphs) and that sounds could be put together to make words...and that WORDS provided LABELS for things!
4. Next, I would show the child that you could put letters/sounds together to make words. Once Zachary knew his letters and sounds, it was simple to "put them together" for him... to simply write a word and have him read it by saying: "What does that say"? or "Read that word" and putting my finger under each letter as I showed him to read the first few words. After just a few, he was off and running...
5. Next, I would provide a "visual" representation of the "parts" of the "whole"... the words that made up the sentence by use of what I called a "bubble graph" as shown in 1a, 2a and 3a.... and eventually moving on to 1b, 2b, and 3b after the child had grasped the concept shown in 1a, 2a and 3a.
6. Next, I believed would come the labeling of word types within a sentence... a noun, an adjective, a verb, and adverb and so on... in a very specific order, as noted above.
Order I would suggest: noun, article (i.e., the, a), adjective, verb, adverb, object of the verb or preposition (answers who, what, when, where, why, how), phrase (idea), preposition (with, under, into etc.), and conjunctions (i.e., and - words that join ideas or phrases). Show that ideas could be put together to make a sentence. Sentences should be labeled as complete thoughts. Sentences could be put together to make paragraphs. Paragraphs could put together to make a story, show a lesson, provide information or for pleasure/fun. Lessons had to be defined as teaching you facts, morals or could be just for "fun". Each one of these things would need to be labeled and defined as its own entity, with its purpose made as clear as possible for the child (i.e., the paragraph, the sentence, the lesson, etc.).
7. Next, I would change the order of the words in the sentence... the order of phrases within the sentence to show how changing order can change the meaning as well! :o)
8. The next step to actually getting to conversation was to help the child "visualize the bubbles" away from the paper/board - as conversation was taking place. This could be done using your finger and "drawing/placing/pointing to the bubbles in the air - as you spoke". This provided a visual reinforcement for the child that "conversation was simply sentences with parts"… and should help take the concept of “bubble graphs off the wall or chalkboard” to apply it to daily life!
9. The final step would be in helping the child focus on the "important parts" of the sentence... to explain that "when people talk, the important stuff was usually at the beginning or the end of a sentence" and that you had to "answer" the person. To answer, would mean to answer the question, or reply to the last part of the sentence. Role playing would greatly help in this area. For example, I often asked Zachary a question and then provided the answer to… and then, made him repeat it.
For example, if I asked Zachary: What are you doing? If he did not answer, I answered for him and told him: "say... I am watching tv mom"... and he usually then repeated the answer for me. Much as with echolalia and "ordering language", this helped him to "order" appropriate responses for future use - reference communication, as talked about earlier.
Zachary was just starting to initiate conversation... right now, he answered my questions. He was getting slowly better at using more words in his replies. I had also noticed that he was now using more "statements of fact" in his conversation as opposed to labels and commands. For example, he was finally saying: “I am tired” and expressing emotions or “how he felt” more. Since autistic children had such limited speech... and speech development was often so lengthy, it was easy to fall into the trap of "conversation" simply taking on the form of "questions" initiated by the parent/caretaker. Parents, like children, needed to work at increasing the variety in terms of the types of language used... to move away from "just questions" to "exclamations, statements of fact, etc." I, personally, found this hard to do after having spent so much time always "questioning" Zachary.
Although I, myself, was just really at this stage of moving from labels and commands to actual conversation with Zachary, I found that he was quite receptive if I did the following: When he asked for something, I took it the next step by asking him for the "object of the verb"... in other words, I always tried to ask him to answer the "who? what? when? where? why? or how?" behind everything he wanted. When he said something, no matter what it was, I tried to "tag on" one of these questions to expand on the idea.
A simple: "give me that" on his part was followed by a "what do you want that for" on my part. "I want juice, please" on his part was followed by a "where are you going to drink that juice?" on my part. It was easy enough to switch the "who?, what?, when? where? why? and how?" around to create a little variety in speech. For example, I could also respond: "how do you want your juice?" or with "when do you want some juice?". At this point, I pretty well always had to answer for Zachary, and make him repeat the “answer”, but that was fine since I knew this helped build that “reference communication for him”. Anything to help further the idea just one more step would eventually go a long, long way toward helping actually get to conversation. :o) Using this concept in reading books, and pointing out the "who? what? when? where? why? how?" as the book was read should also help a great deal in making this whole concept of phrases as ideas, or parts to a sentence a lot more concrete.
Obviously, since I was just starting to do this myself, Zachary still struggled very much with my doing this... so, I always helped him along by giving him the answer and having him repeat it. This did a couple of things. It helped reinforce the concept of "what is the object of the verb"... and therefore, this helped him "understand the ideas" or "parts" to the sentence and made my paper examples of bubble graphs now become practical, concrete examples of speech that he could use for future reference. Once I could get Zachary to think this way, I believed conversation would flow much more readily and that comprehension would be greatly increased (although I did believe he truly understood a lot more than I gave him credit for :o) ).
The key to all language, however, in my opinion - was labeling and the definition of purpose for each type of word or phrase! The more parents labeled and explained, the more the child would understand - the more he would "break the code" and the greater his progress would be... in all areas!
Given what I had come to understand, as provided further in this document, I also believed that motion was critical in terms of actually understanding language and the meaning of words. Thus, “moving bubble graphs” would be the best way to teach the “concepts” behind language (via software, videos, etc.).
In terms of teaching language, there were a few other key areas that I also wanted to address in terms of "how" I would teach them based on what I had seen in Zachary.