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Teaching Synonyms, Antonyms, Homonyms, Homophones and Acronyms Synonyms and Antonyms Much like the concept of "same" and "different", the same stumbling blocks were true in teaching the concept of "synonyms and antonyms". I knew this had been another area of struggle for Zachary. I found that the key was in "which words" I used to teach this concept. Zachary understood the concept of "equal to", so, when teaching synonyms or antonyms, or the concept of "same" verses "different", the words "equal to" or "not equal to" went much further in getting the point across than saying for example, "means the same thing as". "Means the same thing as" had no meaning to Zachary... for him, all things were "this" or "that"... so, the difficulty was in breaking that understanding that something could only be "one thing"... that only "one word" could represent "one thing". The best way to do that was to use the words: "equal to" or "not equal to"... that made it clear and provided the "order" Zachary needed to understand the concept. Once he learned what words could mean the same thing or could mean opposites, I could expand his vocabulary even further by using "equal" or "not equal". By the way, the concept of opposites worked well for Zachary... so, responding to "what is the opposite of ..." would not be difficult for Zachary. Again, however, it was an "all or nothing", up verses down, open verses closed... so to teach “more” antonyms, I believed there would be greater success in expanding vocabulary by perhaps switching between the use of "not equal to" and "opposite of".... in the same way that "equal" should be used along with labeling something as a "synonym". Proper labeling was critical! One or two word labels were best to teach concepts. As with everything, I found it critical to try to teach the "in between", the "parts" or "variations" to each concept… to use examples that showed degrees of "sameness" or of "difference". Words That Teach Quantity, thus, were another excellent tool (see section on Words That Teach Quantity). The key to teaching so many concepts, I found, was simply to use "equations" to teach variations of the same concept. This, I believed, was the critical key to overcoming issues with incomplete reference communication – especially as it related to issues of safety (see section on Safety). In teaching the concept of "same verses different"... I took pictures that looked alike, but not quite... showed gradual increases in "sameness" or in "difference"... changing "one thing at a time"... adding "one difference or sameness" at a time... and using the Word To Teach Quantity as I went along... saying for example: "This one is just a little bit different" and pointing out the difference on the picture. I labeled the difference for Zachary by verbally expressing the difference.... then, once Zachary had reached the exact same picture as the original picture, I would say: These are exactly the same... emphasizing the word, "exactly". Again, was all in teaching the "in between" and labeling the "in between" for the child! Homonyms Homonyms were words that were spelled the same way but had different meanings. For example, a pool of water and the game of pool (played on a pool table). I had not had to do much with these yet, but I did anticipate that they would pose a problem. I was sure that the use of equations would help, but, again, using the same word to mean different things would undoubtedly cause issues for Zachary. This was simply not an issue I had really had to deal with so far. Perhaps in this case, pictures would be best used... with the words written below them. I had done many flash cards with Zachary. Perhaps the key here would be to teach these separately. For example, not to teach the 2 meanings for 1 word spelled the same way on the same day... but to actually space out the 2 definitions... providing one on one day, and perhaps the other a week or two later. I think time and pictures would be the best tools to use in teaching this concept that one word could mean many things. For the autistic child, homonyms would definitely cause confusion if taught on the same day... because for the autistic, everything needed to "make sense" and have its own label... and here, the " one label" was used to mean more than one thing. Thus, the "parts" could be defined based on a specific label alone... and as such, I believed that with that label must come something else... perhaps "a picture", or some other association in order to help solidify the concept that one word could mean many things. Homophones Homophones were words that sounded the same, but were spelled differently. An example of homophones was: to, too, two – or sun verses son. Here we had words that sounded the same, but that meant something different. With homophones, I thought that teaching these words on different days would again be key. Things that were “the same” (here the same in terms of sound) but that mean something different should not be taught “together”… I just thought that would introduce too much confusion for the autistic child, although, due to the different spelling, I believed teaching homophones would be easier than teaching homonyms. I believed that once homophones were taught (preferably separately), that the autistic child’s accurate mind would simply memorize these as “different” words even though they sounded the same due simply to the fact that they were spelled differently. In this case, the parent’s tool of choice was again, definitely “time”… actually teaching these on different days. Again, the use of equations in the form of “two = 2” or “too = also” should help. Another example would be the use of son verses sun... again, the concept was the same, sun = something in the sky that was yellow, whereas son = mommy and daddy's boy. Acronyms In working with Zachary, I also noticed that acronyms were a problem for him. For example, as he worked on the computer, I noticed that Zachary would always say: "hit oak" when he saw the word "OK" on any computer program. So, he could not read the letters to the acronym... he read the acronym as he would read any word... and with "ok"... that produced the sound of "oak". I had only started to work this issue. In using bubble graphs as discussed in my language section, I once made use of the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as an object of the verb. Rather than writing out the entire title in the bubble graph, I simply wrote: "T.T.L.S." and pointed to each letter as I said the song title. Zachary had seen the title spelled out in the sentence and so it was easy enough for him to make the association. This was the only time I had ever really worked this issue with Zachary. I honestly did not think this concept would be that difficult a concept to teach as the use of equations (i.e., "equal to"), visual representations and actual verbalizations as to what the acronym meant, together, should greatly help the autistic child understand this concept. I found that in teaching acronyms that “periods” between the letters were better than just letters in terms of getting the point across. Finally, in teaching Zachary anything, I found that some of the best coping tools I could provide were "Words To Cope" and "Words That Teach Quantity". Both of these greatly helped me to reduce Zachary's stress levels when things simply became too frustrating. |
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