Critical Communication

Underneath the fun of Tuneville is a passion to help student's with disabilities communicate. The majority of the most troubling behaviors stems from an inability to make wants and needs known. The greater degree of control and ownership a person has of his life, the less work a caregiver or teacher has to invest in continually managing behaviors. In conjunction with Tuneville lessons, teach key words or signs like “finished” and “more”. Then make “or” and “then” primary vocabulary goals. More on these two power words in the next entries.

Breaking Prompt Dependence

The goal for all students is to be able to perform a skill (like identifying a cat and saying the “meow” sound) independently with no direction. However, in order to gain a brand new, never before preformed skill, a student is dependent on prompts. Tuneville prompts new interaction but it can, like all teaching methods, foster prompt dependence. Prompt dependence is when a child cannot perform a task without being prompted in the way that the skill was first taught. To lessen dependence on Tuneville, play a lesson where a student can hear it but not see it. See if he can fill in the blanks with auditory cues alone. When a session with Tuneville is done, immediately voice just heard lyrics and see if a student will fill-in for a “live” prompt. Slowly stretch the time between the Tuneville session and this real life test. Then look for opportunities to use lyrics in real world situations. The end goal is to have real world situations spontaneously prompt language learned in Tuneville, i.e., your neighbors cat crosses your lawn and the Tuneville lyric “the cat says, ‘meow’” pops out as real practical everyday language.