A preschool aged child uses pictures and symbols to communicate with a teacher about the clothes and toys she wants in the dramatic play area (running time 1 min. 11 sec.).
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Teacher:
What do you want to put on Gabriella? Shoes?
Narrator:
We have a housekeeping area, that is also with dress up. And what we have is lots of Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker symbols that we’ve placed all around our housekeeping area. And the reason that we’ve done this, is that we want all our kids to be able to communicate to us what it is that they want to do in the housekeeping area.
Some of our kids love to dress up, but they’re not able to reach into the bucket to get the clothes out that they want. So if we are able to offer them a choice of what clothing items they would like, then we’re able to reciprocate and help them get the clothing that they want. And by putting comments and descriptors and adjective in there, then they can comment about how they feel about being dressed up.
Child:
Essed uuup
Teacher:
You’re all dressed up, right.
Child:
Wwright, all essed up, wwwright.
Narrator:
Using these tools allows children to communicate what they want and don’t want. It builds their independence while emphasizing critical self-determination skills.