[blindkid] how do you teach a child to say yes?

Alison Stephens amspencer at yahoo.com
Sat Jul 30 13:47:57 UTC 2011


This sounds familiar.  A few months ago my son was not able to say yes either.  He also would repeat the question if he wanted it, or rephrase it appropriately as an answer, but could not say yes.

So, his TVI invented a ball game that jumpstarted the process of learning this, which he can now do with no trouble.  She sat with legs outstretched with Nate sitting in front of her, also facing forward and I sat opposite about 4 feet away.  She helped Nate hold the ball on the floor in front of him while she asked "Mommy, would you like the ball?"  then I would respond, "Yes, please,"  then she would assist Nate in rolling the ball to me across the floor.  Once I had the ball, it was my turn to ask, "Nate, would you like the ball?"  The TVI would then suggest to Nate that he say "yes, please."  He didn't say it initially, so she would say it for him, and then I would immediately roll the ball.  We did this back and forth for about 45 minutes (was it that long?) and by the end of play he started catching on to asking the "would you like the ball" and saying "yes, please,"  since play would not proceed without the question or answer.  I suppose that it helped that he liked the rolling ball game.

We played this game a few more times over a few weeks, and we also focused on saying "yes, please" at other times during the day, and he got it.  The game really seemed to get him started with it, though.

Hope that helps,
Alison



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