Scrolling

[Guest guest]

Hi there,

I have been there on this one ... Scrolling is when, in teaching signed

mands, the child errors and signs for the wrong thing .. that is, performs

the wrong sign in order to access the object. Ie, you have a cookie in your

hand which the child clearly wants ... but makes the sign for cracker

instead. This happens alot in the beginning when signing is getting under

way. To correct this, you would place the child's hands into a neutral

position for a second or two and model the correct sign and then provide any

additional assistance the child may need to successfully make that sign

himself ... always say the word when you sign it, when he signs it and when

you deliver it <3X> (pair the word with the sign and the delivery of the

reinforcement). At the start it's good to teach inital signs across

motivational categories .. ie, one food, one toy, one action. Sometimes we

know we want to eat but not WHAT we want to eat. But we rarely confuse

wanting to eat a steak with jumping on a trampoline. Something that my

child needed a lot of was discrimination training with signed mands .. that

is present several competing reinforcers at the same time to let him know he

could have either one. If he was looking at and reaching for chip but

signed for jump, I would place his hands in neutral, model the sign, he'd

copy it, I'd give him chip. This way he not only learns when I make the

sign for something .. I get the item I want .. but I also DO NOT get that

other thing that I see and also like but just don't want at this moment.

Some people make the mistake of doing this " Well you signed for jump,

that's what you get " ... don't do that. That's not showing him how to get

what he wants .. he won't like signing too much and it's rather aversive.

Rather keep him successful and help him get it right, show him how to get it

and help him sign it if you have to. It's ok to make mistakes ... this is

hard stuff for these guys and takes a lot of practice. Keep up the good

work! The first mands are the hardest ... but once he is able to

discriminate, things will move more smoothly. My child used to scroll

alot if he had just manded for a dozen chips and then wanted a cookie.

Since he got reinforced for making the sign for CHIP he would make that sign

for COOKIE ... Hope any of this helped

ann