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Teaching Synonyms And Antonyms To The Autistic Child... The Concept Of Same Versus Different Much like the concept of "same" and "different", the same stumbling blocks were true in teaching the concept of "synonyms and antonyms". I know this has been another area of struggle for Zachary. I found that the key lies 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" go much further in getting the point across than saying for example, "means the same thing as". "Means the same thing as" has no meaning to Zachary... for him, all things are "this" or "that"... so, the difficulty lies in breaking that understanding that something can only be "one thing"... that only "one word" can represent "one thing". The best way to do that is to use the words: "equal to" or "not equal to"... that makes it clear and provides the "order" he needs to understand the concept. Once he learns what words mean the same thing or which ones mean opposites, I can expand the vocabulary even further by using "equal" or "not equal". By the way, the concept of opposites works well for Zachary... so, responding to "what is the opposite of ..." would not be difficult for Zachary. Again, however, it is an "all or nothing", up verses down, open verses closed... so to teach MORE antonyms, I believe 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 is critical!... and one or two word labels are 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 show degrees of "sameness" or of "difference". Words of Quantity, thus, are another excellent tool. The key to teaching so many concepts, I found, was simply to use "equations" to teach the concept. For example, 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, it's all in teaching the "in between" and labeling the "in between" for the child! Teaching Homonyms Homonyms are words that are spelled the same way but have different meanings. For example, a pool of water and the game of pool (played on a pool table). I've not had to do much with these yet, but I do anticipate that they will pose a problem. I am sure that the use of equations will help, but, again, using the same word to mean different things will undoubtedly cause issues for Zachary. This is simply not one I've had to really deal with so far. Perhaps in this case, pictures would be best used... with the words written below them. I have done many flash cards with Zachary. Perhaps the key here will be to teach these separately. For example, to not teach the 2 meanings for 1 word 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 can mean many things. For the autistic child, homonyms, in my opinion, would definitely cause confusion if taught on the same day... because for the autistic, everything needs to "make sense" and have its own label... and here, the "label" is used to mean more than one thing. Thus, the "parts" can not be defined based on a specific label alone... and as such, I believe 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 can mean many things. Teaching Homophones Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently. An example of homophones is: to, too, two. Here we have three words that sound the same, but that mean something different. With homophones, I think that teaching these words on different days will again be key. Things that are “the same” (here the same in terms of sound) but that mean something different, in my opinion, should not be taught “together”… I just think that would introduce too much confusion for the autistic child. I believe that once these words are each taught, separately, that the autistic child’s accurate mind will simply memorize these as “different” words even though they sound the same. In this case, the parent’s tool of choice is 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 is the same, sun = something in the sky that is yellow, son = mommy and daddy's boy. Teaching 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 couldn't read the letters to the acronym... he read the acronym as he would read any word... and with "ok"... that would be read and produce the sound of "oak". I have 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've ever really worked this issue with Zachary. I honestly don't think this concept will 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 means, together, should, in my opinion, greatly help the autistic child understand this concept. |
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