Enlighted Hound

ADD ONE WORD⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Adding one more word than what your learner is currently using onto the length of your phrases encourages their understanding of a more complex sentence. Additionally, adding one, or sometimes two unfamiliar words to your board at a time maintains a continuous but manageable challenge.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I have definitely been over excited and given Marshall too many new words at one time before, and regretted it. It ended up being confusing and overwhelming. I certainly learned my lesson that a slow but steady challenge is the winning pace.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Marshall has not formed a multi button phrase yet, but I feel like we are SO CLOSE. Of course switching over to our new board has manifested its own special challenges that are keeping our focus for now, and he’ll surely put words together when he’s ready. In the meantime I’ll settle for not using the “hungry” button as if he’d never been fed in his entire little life!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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🐾💕

SABOTAGE⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I’ve talked about this strategy a couple of times in previous posts, and use it a lot with Marshall. It happens to be my favorite strategy to use as it involves more creativity than the others and often a sense of play! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Marshall is a dog that is known to need a great deal of motivation in order to learn and do new things, not because he isn’t totally capable but because he marches to the beat of his own drum. So sabotage has been one of the best ways to create motivation to learn and use his AAC!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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My favorite way to do this has been abruptly stopping a play session and waiting for Marshall to request more play using his buttons. Have you used sabotage with your learner? How did it work for you?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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PARALLEL TALK⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Much like self talk, parallel talk involves narrating what your dog is doing. The more often you utilize your chosen vocabulary in real situations, whether you have buttons for those words yet or not, the more ease your learner will feel with using that vocabulary themselves. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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This is not only a great way to reinforce buttons that you are currently teaching, but also to prepare your learner for words yet to come. Making a point to stress your target words whenever applicable is a key part of giving your dog a well rounded understanding of the meanings behind what for them are just sounds.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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🐾💕⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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