Practicing S2C at home
Some tips for Communication Regulation Partners (CRPs)
Note: This is NOT a comprehensive guide, and has not been approved by I-ASC or any other organization. These are just the suggestions that I believe will help people build their skills as Communication Regulation Partners (CRPs) to their spellers. Note: CRPs are NOT practitioners - practitioners have been certified through a specific practitioners’ training to teach S2C to spellers and CRPs. CRPs do not need to go through any certification.
Topics:
Overview
Spelling to Communicate (S2C) is a tested method that works. It has been informed by feedback from many nonspeakers and their families, and has been implemented and refined by experienced practitioners. So, I’ll start by reminding everyone: Please trust the process! There is a reason behind every step of it.
With regular, attentive practice that follows the standard process, you can and will make progress. Trust me when I say: CRPs that push too fast, or ignore proper practice, end up wasting time and energy because they will eventually need to go back to the beginning and start again - and in the meantime, they have solidified bad habits and improper practice.
This is not a race. The most important thing is NOT that you go through the steps quickly, or that you skip steps and force the speller into improper spelling. The most important thing is that you and the speller build a solid foundation of purposeful, reliable communication. You might need to “go slow to go fast” - build good habits now for a future of sustained, reliable communication access for your speller. This takes care and it also takes regular practice.
Being a competent CRP for your speller will open up a whole world of possibilities for them, way beyond what they could access with weekly or bi-weekly sessions with an S2C practitioner. This is an exciting opportunity that will improve your speller’s well-being - I realize we all have busy, complicated lives, but this is worth prioritizing!
Approaching your practice sessions
1. Presume competence: If you read the lessons clearly, and if you ask the questions as written in the lessons, you speller WILL know the answers. You don’t need to give them hints about the answers themselves or repeat the question over and over. You are focusing on coaching their motor skills so they can spell out the answers that they already know. So, focus your energy on how to help their body, instead of spending energy trying to give them hints about the answer.
2. Approach this like you are coaching someone learning a new sport, or like you’re a personal trainer at a gym. Observe your speller’s body - how does it move when trying to spell? How does it react to different prompts? Then think: how can I help this person with their body’s movements? How can I use my prompting (including the volume, speed, tone of voice) to keep their body focused, encourage them, and cue their body to practice certain skills (e.g., “slow that arm down,” “look,” “find it with your eyes”)?
Analyze what might be keeping their body from spelling accurately (are they dysregulated? is their arm moving way too fast? are they having trouble initiating movement?). Then think of, and test, different ways to help them with the issue. Be creative and be optimistic that you can figure it out. In most cases, I’ve already shared some suggestions for habits that I’ve observed, so review our notes and try them out!
Also like a coach/trainer: don’t overwork your athlete! If they are fatigued, adapt the session to be easier for them (easier questions, easier board(s), shorter session, etc.)
3. Especially for parents: Leave your ego at the door. This is not a test of how much your speller loves or likes you. This is not a “behavioral issue.” Trust that they really want to spell with you (wouldn’t you be desperate to communicate with anyone, especially your loved ones, if you had never really been able to?). The big barriers to parent-child spelling include pressure that the parent and child put on each other and themselves to be able to spell together, as well as the complex emotions in any parent-child relationship.
See each practice session as an opportunity to build trust and to establish a “safe space” for you and your speller together. Show them that you value their need to communicate, and that you are there to help them, and not to add extra pressure or expectations on them. Approach each practice session with: “What can I learn about supporting my speller’s body as they build their communication skills?”
Practice sessions are not a test of your worth as a parent or CRP or person. If a session doesn’t go well, don’t blame yourself and don’t blame the speller. It just means that something was off - maybe one or both of you wasn’t in a good place mentally or emotionally, maybe one or both of you was tired.
Now, if you and the speller do have a history of conflict, or if you feel like maybe you haven’t been getting along well lately, this of course could impact the sessions. It can be hugely helpful to build trust with your speller outside of S2C practice sessions, too. Show them that you want to support them in the way they need. Acknowledge any mistakes or hurtful things you may have done. (This is easier said than done - I know!).
In practice: A suggested “checklist”
This is generally the “order of operations” I go through when working with spellers:
Posture: Are they sitting straight, tall, with their body properly supported in the chair? Ideally: feet would be flat on the ground, under the knees (so the knees are bent at 90 degrees). Their spelling arm is free to move forward and back (so, using a chair with NO arms is best). They’re not leaning on anything.
Board placement: Is the speller able to easily reach all the letters of the board? Is the board far enough away so their arm isn’t getting “stuck” behind it? Is it not too low, not too high? And… am I holding the board still and steady?
Regulation/energy: Is there a lot of energy that their body is struggling to deal with? Are they calm and settled? Are they excited but still in control? Are they fatigued/sluggish? This helps inform how I prompt them - do I need to help them slow their bodies down, or do I need to help energize them? If they are dysregulated, how can I support their regulation, and how might I need to adapt the session to meet them where they are? It can change from day to day.
Movement when spelling: Looking for: smooth hinging movement from the shoulder and elbow (not moving the rest of the body); deliberate, confident, accurate poking of letters; eye movement (where are they looking?). If they get “stuck” - is it with certain letters? certain parts of the board? are their eyes helping them? If they’re poking very inaccurately - is it because they’re moving too fast? what are their eyes doing? are they heading to the right letter, but then lacking follow-through? are they poking all around it? Basically: how are they moving, and if that needs to change, how can I support them in learning how to do that?
Responses to prompts: Based on observation from 3 of the above points - posture, regulation/energy, movement - I think of, and try, different prompts to help the speller through any difficulties and to reinforce good habits. I pay attention to which prompts seem to help, and which don’t seem to make much difference (or might actually make them seem frustrated!).
CRP energy: So important to check in with myself to see if I’m adding anxiety/tension to the situation, or if I’m distracted or getting frustrated. The CRP’s energy affects the speller’s energy.
Prompting
Tip from a parent I work with: Write down helpful prompts and put it somewhere where you can easily see it for reference during your sessions! You can also add other reminders, like “Watch posture” or “Arm forward, then back” or whatever else you and your speller are working on.
A review of the different kinds of prompts:
Directional, Gestural: These 2 should be faded out BEFORE moving beyond Green questions. If you are trying to fade these out, but your speller is having a tough day and getting stuck, it’s better to use these and avoid your speller getting super frustrated. But again, don’t use this beyond the Green questions.
Directional: Indicating, using your words, where to move to get to the letter (to the left, up, down, next door, etc.).
Gestural: Indicating, with the use of hand gestures, where to move to get to the letter. Often used with vocal directional prompts, or with something like “all the way” or “big jump!”. Some gestural prompts might not relate to direction - like I sometimes use gestures to remind the speller to get their “elbow back” - and these are okay to keep using with more open spelling, but I do recommend fading them eventually, too, as they will make the spelling look less “autonomous”
Neutral, body-coaching prompts: These do not tell the speller where to go. They help the speller stay regulated, motivated, and focused, and help the speller’s body do the work it needs to do to find the letters they want.
Continuation: Help the speller stay in the flow and focused – you got it, get it, next, then, and, find it, stay with it, etc.
Eye prompts: Specifically helping the speller get their eyes working for them – use those eyes, look, look for it, find it with your eyes (then bring your hand to it), get your eyes on it, watch yourself poke it
Pacing prompts for fast pokers: Continuation prompts that help get the speller into more of a deliberate rhythm that better allows for purposeful poking, said in a pronounced, slow, steady and rhythmic voice – 3, 2, 1, get it; pause, look, go; find it then get it; slow your poke down; nice and steady and then poke; all the way to the letter
Pacing prompts for slow pokers: No need to rush, but if getting and staying in a sustained rhythm is tricky, using a confident and rhythmic voice can help – sometimes a high energy voice can get the initiation going (but watch out for overwhelming the speller). Faster, more enthusiastic voice; 3, 2, 1, get it!; get that letter!; get your body to that letter!
Confidence: A kind of continuation prompt where you help the speller trust themselves – you got this, you can do this, trust yourself, you’ve worked so hard and you’ve come so far, I’m with you
Pauses and resets: These are helpful if the speller is getting stuck (really slowing down, or has a bunch of inaccurate pokes in a row, or just hovers their hand) or dysregulated.
Lift the board up and reset.
See if they might need to “reset” their arm position (a lot of times, the arm gets stuck out by the board - help them, with verbal or physical cues, to get that arm a little more clear of the board)
“Let’s take a beat” or “let’s pause a bit.”
Take a deep breath, and maybe guide them in any little activity/trick that helps them calm down.
If the struggle persists, but they seem to still be able to sit and spell without being overwhelmed, try accommodations to make things easier until you get over the “stuck”-ness – e.g., go 1 level down to an “easier” board, use a flap, do only green questions. Take the pressure off. You can also try to assess whether their body needs something (bathroom, food, drink, etc.).
Remember: you can use the volume and speed of your voice to help make the prompting more appropriate and helpful for how your speller is feeling each day.
Co-Regulation
If you are stressed or anxious or frustrated, your speller will likely feel it, too. It’s helpful to remember that they are likely highly sensitive to your energy, and also that they are working very hard – this is a mental and physical workout for them, plus there is emotional pressure because they want to succeed (and probably also to make you proud).
Remember: the person this matters most to is the speller. Yes, as their loved ones, we are anxious to finally know their words. But this is their pathway to a better life and something they’ve likely dreamed of their whole lives. That’s a LOT of expectation and pressure they’re putting on themselves!
A tip from Danny: “When you are a CRP, leave your ego out of it.” In other words: put your CRP hat on, and be open to how you & your speller are connecting that day. Adapt to how their body is and how their energy/regulation is. They are counting on you to be there to coach their body.
So, even though you might be feeling a lot of emotions, too, the CRP’s role is to be calm, strong, and confident, to reassure your speller and support them (easier said than done!).
The image below might be helpful:
Accommodations
Don’t be afraid to make things more accessible for your speller, especially if they are tired. But please have a good reason for any accommodations you use - I would prefer if you email me before trying anything we haven’t already done in our sessions together (unless another practitioner recommends it). You already have seen the accommodations I’ve use with your speller, which might include:
Flap: for the 3 boards – this reduces the # of letters the speller needs to look at and process. Great if they are having a bit of a challenge on the 3 boards.
Weight: hand-held or on a pencil, or holding a pen punch – this can help them have a better sense of where their hand is in space, and/or slow their poke down. Just make sure that it isn’t interfering with their spelling form (holding a point with their finger) or overly fatiguing them
Paper backing on the stencil boards – for vision support, and also works well for clients who struggle with holding a pointer but for whom the sensory boards are not a good match
Easier questions – it’s still practice!
Toggling: You can switch back and forth between flap and no flap, 3 and 26 board, etc. – it’s actually a good way to transition to the next level
Additional tips/reminders!
Good enough is good enough. As long as you are following proper technique and being responsive to your speller’s energy level and regulation (and your own regulation!), practice will mean progress over time*. The sessions don’t have to be “perfect” – they don’t have to be 45 minutes long, the lesson doesn’t have to be the most interesting lesson, and it’s okay if you have some sessions where the spelling just doesn’t seem to be working (we all have off days).
*Of course, there are cases where progress will not always be a straight line, or if something disrupts the speller’s state of well-being, for example. But in the long-term, as long as you use proper technique and respect their regulation needs, any practice will be helpful.
Trust the process, and don’t rush it. “Go slow to go fast.” Build a strong, reliable foundation of spelling through the lessons. Use the right boards and questions for where your spelling partnership is – pushing too quickly to the next level of boards and to open questions is possibly the most common “mistakes” that new CRPs make, especially families. You want to be rock solid on the 3 boards + known (green) questions before you try the 26 stencil – and once on the 26 stencil, you want to be very confident on greens and oranges (semi-opens) before going to blues and pinks (prior knowledge and open). Similarly, be comfortable (and accurate) together on the 26 stencil before the laminate.
Please! I know (from our family’s experience) that it is so tempting to try to jump right into conversation with your speller, but please, please don’t rush it. If you are not confidently spelling pink (open) questions together in lessons, it is not yet time to try for conversation on the letterboard. This not only might be frustrating, but it can also introduce bad habits and unreliable spelling, which are very, very hard to undo. If you are not reliably open together, do not use the letterboards for communication yet.
Don’t be afraid to have “easy” sessions. If your speller is fatigued or has had a tough day, or if the spelling is just a little “off,” it’s okay to go back to the “easier” boards and to easier questions. This can take some pressure off of them, and you still get some good practice in.
Support their confidence and regulation as much as you support their motor skills!
You might have times where you feel discouraged or doubt if you can do this. That is understandable. Try to not let these thoughts crowd your mind while you are spelling! Many spellers have said that they can sense this kind of lack of confidence, and it affects them, too.
Just practice! Be mindful, follow the process, but also: take the time to practice regularly.
Useful resources
Me! (For my existing clients) Email me any questions when I’m out of town, and share any questions or concerns with me in sessions. The same goes for any S2C/RPM/Speller Method practitioner you work with.
I-ASC’s website has a lot of information and blogs. It is NOT the easiest to navigate, but it’s definitely worth exploring. Some examples:
Facebook groups can be helpful communities for parents or other CRPs who feel “stuck” and who don’t have ready access to a practitioner. Examples:
As with all of the content on this site: This information has not been reviewed or approved by I-ASC, but instead comes from my experiences and insights. As such, I take full responsibility for my posts. I am happy to change/take down any content that is seen as irresponsible or incorrect!