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My oldest son (9yrs) is social and an oral communicator.
He has a significant speech and language disorder. He also has Developmental Disabilities.
He reads and understands what he reads at a much more effective level than he communicates.
Most of what he says is unclear or gives the listener too little information.

He becomes an "effective communicator" and learns "concepts" (not skills) through relationships.

Relationships address his learning style.

Here is a recent conversation. between he and I:

David: "Om, ingerale"
Me: "Om, ingerale?"
David: "ingerale"
Me: "Mommy does not know what you said." (integrated with sign language to support his understanding)
David: "ingerale" (pointing)
Me: "GINGER ALE?"
David: "yea"
Me: "you want ginger ale?"
David: "Ranjuice"
Me: "You want Orange Juice with Ginger Ale?" (Sign language integrated)
David: "YAH, from Walmart"
Me: "David, your talking about Walmart..............but we were talking about a drink." (sign integrated)
Me: "David, tell Mom you want Ginger Ale with Orange Juice." (sign language integrated)

In this example my goal is to retrain his "Jargon Speech".
I want to keep the conversation going, I avoid questions and use what he says to build understanding between us and indirectly teach him to hear what he says.
I want him to benefit from what he knows and can do.

His goal is to "correct what others think he said".

His goal is not to "stay on topic", because we want him to be successful.

When his sounds and actions are given meaning through relationships, he is successful and shows us what he knows and thinks.

Oh, the Possibilities.

I have often felt that visuals supports help my son with Down Syndrome think and learn.

While attending the Dallas Down Syndrome Guild's Fall Conference, September 2008, I learned to shift from using visuals that make sense to me (and other adults) to making visuals that facilitate his understanding.

The presenters were Lynn Campbell, CCC-SLP and Sidney Crim, CCC-SLP and the session was "Strategies to Improve Reading and Behavior". The theory behind the "intervention" is Semantic Language Learning.

I started using the strategies immediately, and over the past year he has improved his "use" of language by learning concepts that underlie functional reading, writing, thinking, viewing, listening, speaking, and calculating.

First, we "wrote what he said" (scribing with a white board); it helps him hear what he says.
Then, we implemented the use of "cartoons", with "thought" and "speech bubbles" to define himself and others in a specific space and time.
Third, we conversed about pictures. The types of pictures needed were pictures of people in activities he could relate to.
He was learning to "see" people in relationship to himself in a variety of events pictured.
And after he learned to "converse" (no questions) about these drawings and pictures, we started "writing" "text to self statements" (agent, action, objects).
Then adding to the text, an action or description word.

I started to see, the layers for learning oppurtunities are endless.
He needs a variety of relationship understanding to be successful.

From conversing and scribing we moved onto "drawing" the "visual symbol" associated with
content words.

Today he is learning,
*color coding and self correcting strategies in word morphology games and activities.
*to work independently and in peer groups with a variety of visual supports that facilitate his neurological development.
*to complete statements about text read.

No matter where my son is placed, he needs visual supports. Learning in a segregated environment is not any easier and learning life skills does not facilitate his functional learning.

I believe we can learn so much about ourselves from these lifelong relationships with our children. I hope you will join me and share.