When I got off my airplane in Peru, it was immediately evident that my high school Spanish was not enough. High school was a long, long time ago. (We won't talk about HOW long . . .). But I began to look around for the clues that would direct me to my luggage, transportation, and eventually to my hotel.

Visual strategies at work
I found a person who had my name on a sign. He was the person who was given the job of transporting me to my hotel. His sign was a great visual tool for the visual strategies lady. As I got settled in my hotel, I must say the visual cues helped me more than my ability with the Spanish language.

I tried to remember
As I began to interact with the people at the conference, real communication was not easy. I tried to use the small Spanish vocabulary I could remember. The majority of people spoke only Spanish or just a little English.

Here is what I realized
I was trying to communicate in Spanish, but my vocabulary was not sufficient to explain exactly what I meant. I was doing the best I could to tell people what I wanted them to know, but my personal dictionary of vocabulary didn't have enough words in it.

What I said wasn't necessarily what I meant
I was trying to find the words to communicate exactly what I meant. I was using the words I knew, but I just didn't know enough words. What came out of my mouth might have sounded like, "How much dollars, you market work go." My communication partners had their own limitations with English.

This reminds me of many of my students
I have worked with so many students who have experienced that same problem. They may have 5 or 50 or 500 or 5000 words in their personal dictionary. No matter how many words are there, the problem can be the same. The words that they have to choose from may not accurately communicate what they want us to know. I suspect that a lot of the frustrations and behavior situations that our students can encounter can be the result of this same lack of adequate vocabulary.

Good News!
People going to a conference about communication managed to overcome communication challenges. We did get along quite well considering the language barriers. Here is what we did.

• We recognized that we did not speak the same language.
  Acknowledging there could be a communication challenge puts us on alert to pay attention.
• We used lots of gestures, body language, visual props
  Those non verbal communication supports are great for universal, multi-lingual interaction.
• We let the other person know when we didn't understand
  If we let him know we don't understand, it gives the person the chance to try again.
• We asked for help
  There were people who understood both languages. They helped us bridge the language gap. It was common to ask a third person, "How do you say ___?"
• We used translators
  Sometimes we knew there would be a communication problem so we found a translator to help us from the very beginning. The translators knew both languages very well. They could help us understand the concepts and ideas as well as individual words.
• We clarified what we thought the other person was trying to communicate
  If I ask, "Is this what you mean?" that shows the other person that I do understand. It helps me make sure that my understanding is clear and correct.
• We stuck with it until we were sure correct communication was being exchanged
  We didn't stop. Sometimes it took a few exchanges back a forth to make sure we understood each other. This was probably the most important step.
• We practiced and repeated once we found out how to say what we meant
  It helped us to restate the comment or to use the new vocabulary word again.

Have YOU attended Visual Strategies on TOUR? Plans are
being finalized for fall and winter dates. Can you join me in one
of these cities?

Check these locations:

• Schaumburg (Chicago), IL
• King of Prussia (Philadelphia), PA
• Dallas, TX
• Richmond, VA
• Kansas City, MO
• Santa Ana, CA
• Murfreesboro (Nashville), TN

I love this Learning to Get Along® Series of books. The topics are perfect for both regular and special education classes. Titles like Know and Follow the Rules or Join In and Play address exactly the skills our students with ASD need help learning. They contain just the right amount of information for our students who need to learn appropriate social behaviors. And the good part. . . . there is a special price if you buy the whole set.

Are you a techie?

Or are you one of those people who tell me you aren't very comfortable with the digital world?

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Did you ever read an e-Book?

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E-Books can be long or short. Most important, they are convenient.

This is especially good news for international readers. You can get
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Are you planning for your staff
in-service training for next year? Do you ever get complaints about boring programs filled with useless information?

Visual Strategies Workshops are packed with lots of practical "how-to" information that participants can take back to use the next day.

Here is what one program planner said
"In my 25 years+ of educational experience (14 as an admin), I have never seen a group of educators so attentive!" - Administrator

Give your educators effective tools to make a difference
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Autism Spectrum Quarterly (ASQ), the magajournal, is a
thoroughly unique international publication that brings you
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Linda Hodgdon, M.Ed., CCC-SLP is a Speech-Language Pathologist and a Consultant for Autism Spectrum Disorders. She is the author of the bestseller, Visual Strategies for Improving Communication, one of the most recommended books in the field of autism.

Internationally recognized as a powerful and informative speaker and consultant, Linda has presented her insightful and dynamic workshops to audiences of educators and parents worldwide.

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