Scenarios
Levels of ability
Communication: functional versus linguistic
It is not possible for one short publication to
cover the ICT educational support needs of all pupils and young people who
might be described by these terms. This Unit therefore targets teachers of
pupils whose communication is at a functional rather than linguistic level.
Taken in its broadest sense, it is by means of
communication that we can judge whether a pupil is aware of their environment
and changes that may take place in it. We hope to help pupils to move forward,
so that they may move on from making a response to something, to beginning to
initiate change themselves, and making choices about what happens.
The term ‘functional communication’
itself spans a wide range of levels of communication. Teachers will be aware
that ICT activities appropriate to pupils operating at one level of
communication may not be appropriate to pupils who communicate at a different
level. We have therefore grouped ICT activities around each of six levels of
functional or early communication. The framework we use to group the ICT
activities is one that will be familiar to many teachers, following the work of
Coupe & Goldbart (1992).
In practice a teacher may well have in
one class a group of pupils who cover these entire six levels of communicative
competence (or beyond). And any one pupil may appear to function at more than
one level at any one time.
The six levels are intended to help teachers
choose ICT activities to suit the needs of pupils with whom they work.
Level 1. Pre-intentional: Reflexive
| Description |
Adult assigns
communicative intent and meaning to behaviours which consist of responses to
internal and external stimuli from some or all senses. |
| Behaviours |
sucking,
startle, crying, frowns, body movements, whines, burps |
| Meanings |
like, dislike,
want, reject, known and not known |
| Aims |
to develop
awareness and attention e.g. looking, stilling to sound |
Level 2. Pre-intentional: Reactive
|
Description |
Adult assigns
communicative intent and meaning to pupil’s behaviours. These behaviours
include reactions to events and people within their environment. Pupil
receives, attends to and discriminates input from some or all senses. |
| Behaviours |
crying, body
movements, mouthing, turning to sound (especially speech), holding, facial
movements, smiling, mutual attention – e.g. mutual gaze if pupil makes eye
contact |
| Meanings |
recognition of
patterns, expectation / anticipation of predictable events |
| Aims |
to encourage
consistent, distinct responses to specific stimuli (e.g. smile and vocalization
for like) |
Level 3. Pre-intentional: Proactive
|
Description |
The pupil tries
to act on environment. Adult uses actions as signals to assign communicative
intent and meaning. Pupil is beginning to take meaning from adult’s
actions and displays of affection. |
| Behaviours |
vocalizations
with intonation, pitch, stress, joint attention to stimuli,
‘listening’ or stilling, taking part in shared interactions with
adult(s) |
| Meanings |
intention to
carry out some action, or get something |
| Aims |
to develop
receptive skills, such as stopping actions in response to angry tone of voice,
or acceptable behaviours, such as vocalizing when adult is near |
Level 4. Intentional: Primitive
|
Description |
Pupil begins to
act intentionally on adults and objects in the environment. The meaning of
actions may not yet be clear, although a limited range of functions is
apparent. Pupil begins to understand non-verbal communication behaviours. For
those with enough vision to make eye contact, it will alternate between object
of attention and the adult. Pupil likely to persist until the goal is achieved,
at which point behaviour stops. For those with less vision watch this one. |
| Behaviours |
puts objects in
people’s hands, pushes people or things away |
| Meanings |
conscious
intention to act on the environment |
| Aims |
to make eye
contact and lead adult towards what is wanted; take item from adult offering it
when instructed verbally to do so |
Level 5. Intentional: Conventional
|
Description |
Pupil
intentionally communicates a range of meanings using more conventional signals
such as gesture, vocalizations and protowords. Becoming easier for adults to
understand meaning. Increasing number of communicative functions. Improved
understanding of others’ speech. |
| Behaviours |
nodding, shaking
head, waving, pointing, gestures, (use of objects of reference,
signifiers) |
| Meanings |
emergence of
conventional functions such as drawing attention, responding, requesting,
rejecting |
| Aims |
to signal
non-existence of an expected object (all gone) |
Level 6. Intentional: Referential
|
Description |
Intentional
communication using combinations of words (speech, signs, symbols).
Pupil’s communication easier to interpret (less ambiguity and less
dependence on context). Comprehension of language is increasing. |
| Behaviours |
speech, signing,
development of meaning |
| Meanings |
wide range |
| Aims |
the emergence of
spoken, sign other formal language system |
Note that the above is only a very rough
guide to stages in the development of communication.
   
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