Kathy’s

1. Kathy’s Communication Guide

2. Using my book • The pages put in this book are the ones that help me. • There are pictures you can talk to me about. • There are ideas of ways to help me understand. • There are descriptions of how I tell you things. • This book will help Spend time with me Get to know me

3. 1 Introducing me What you need to know and how to support it 2 3 Things Kathy likes to talk about 4 Communication Charts 5 Communication Tools 6 Decision Making 7 Special Moments contents

4. Introducing me • My name is Kathy Pemberton • I live in Leyland • I go to Melrose Drive Day service • Things • people like about me….. Change this photo to a picture of the person you support Use this page to give some personal information about the person you support. You only need to include the kind of things that you would tell someone when you meet them for the first time e.g. their name, what they do during the day etc. Do not put any information in the guide that you don’t want other people to know. Guidance: Some people like to use the ‘first person’ for example ‘my name is..’ or ‘I do this…’ . Be careful if you use this when the person cannot agree. If you do use the first person you may also want to change the title’s of the sections e.g. Introducing Me 1

5. What you need to know… Use these pages to give the information that people really need to know about a person’s communication needs. For example about their hearing and eye sight, and their level of understanding. This page has examples of using the third and first person. 2

6. ...and how to support it

7. What you need to know… 2

8. ...and how to support it

9. Please understand too, that… • Kathy may smile at you but not recognise who you are. • Simple decisions or choices may be difficult. • Kathy may have difficulty working things out, (problem solving) and following instructions. • It might be difficult for Kathy to understand the consequences of what she does and to learn from experience • Kathy could have difficulty giving consent because she may not understand or remember the information. • Kathy may also need help to... • Understand how other people think, feel and act (this can make friendships difficult). • Understand and manage her money. • Understand time and plan for the future • Understand changes especially when people and places come and go in her life. Think about these issues and include any information you think might add to an understanding of Kathy’s abilities to work things out. (Delete this box)

10. Things Kathy likes to talk about People like to talk about the important people in their lives. These are my friends David and Robert. We meet every Thursday at the Gateway club Show the pictures to the person you are supporting whilst you are talking. To do this you may need to make the pictures quite big so that they can been seen clearly. 3

11. This my dog. His name is Graveson. He is very fluffy and loves water. My favourite football team is Manchester United They may have a special interest like trains....

12. Sometimes people like to talk about the things that they do. Describe the activities that they do and maybe who supports them. I like trampolining. I go to the leisure centre every Tuesday. Or they like to talk about what has been happening in their favourite TV programmes....

13. You can rotate the picture round to fit the page to make it larger.

14. The person you support may need help to focus on one picture. You may find folding the book back and only showing one picture at a time helps .

15. Communication Kathy is being asked to make a choice or answer a question. For example choosing her clothes. Kathy says ‘yes’ but her facial expression is cross and her tone is sharp. Kathy will take her feet off her foot stool, remove the rug from her knee and look in an obvious way at the clock. 4

16. Chart

17. Communication

18. Chart

19. Helping Kathy

20. to Understand

21. How do you know Kathy is

22. If you know of anymore communications relating to the person’s emotions add them to these pages. Add more pages if necessary. (Delete this box)

23. Communication Tools The person you support may use some form of signing system to talk to others. You could list the signs that they use like this... Later; extend the index finger on your dominant signing hand and point it away from you. Rest this index hand against the flat of your other hand and let your index hand drop forward and down so that your finger is pointing forward. Pain; clawed like hand shape shakes over painful area. Use appropriate facial expressions to help the person to understand what you are trying to say. Tired; using your dominant signing hand stretch out all of your fingers. Have your palm facing down and your thumb resting against your chest. The hand then arcs over so that the palm is facing upwards at waist height, shoulders slump 5

24. You can find out more about signing systems at http://www.signalong.org and http://www.makaton.org/ The person could use a aid like this one, to talk to people. Communication aids may only have a limited vocabulary. It can also take someone a little time to use the aid to talk. Use these pages to give this kind of information. Or he/she could use a picture system like PECS. You can learn more about PECS at: www.pecs.org.uk

25. This picture will inform Kathy that she is going out on the bus. Use this picture to tell Kathy she needs to put on her coat. This is the cup Kathy uses at home. Use this picture to ask her if she wants a drink. Kathy will sign for yes or shake her head for no.

26. The person you support may need pictures or objects of reference to help their understanding. Use these pages to provide illustrated guidelines on how to support clients to use pictures and objects of reference etc. Show Kathy the arm band to tell her she is going swimming.

27. Interacting with Me • If the person you support is “hard to reach” this is how you can start to engage with them (please note that this will be individual for each person). • Think about how you might approach the person you support. Do they prefer to approach you first? • Think about where you should sit or stand. Some people are more responsive if you sit or stand to the side of them.

28. Try copying their actions and wait to see how they respond. • Make it fun! You can find more about Intensive Interaction at: http://www.intensiveinteraction.co.uk/

29. Decision Making Tools You can stick Velcro here to attach pictures to help people make choices. Like this picture for horse riding. The person could have the choice of either horse riding or swimming Idea: The person’s pictures should be kept with guide. You could have separate storage pages for pictures, or keep them in a plastic wallet in the file. 6

30. If the person uses ‘Talking Mats’ to help with decisions you could put the details here e.g. • how to use them • the use photos or symbols • and which topics the client has • discussed before • You can find out more about ‘Talking Mats’ at: http://www.talkingmats.com

31. Decision Making

32. Agreement

33. Special Communication 7

34. Moments These page are for recording breakthroughs from which we may learn something new about a person’s communication. You will probably be handwriting this page. Light bulb picture Copy write of Ian Britton found at http://www.freefoto.com/preview/11-12-52?ffid=11-12-52&k=Electric+Light+Bulb

35. The Lancashire Communication Guide For further information contact... Speech and Language Therapy Dept Learning Disabilities Services Croston House Lancashire Business Park Centurion Way Leyland PR26 6TR Tel: 01772 644130 Organisations represented in the production of this guide: The Brothers of Charity Services