Don’t tell kids: “Use your words!”- Do this instead
“Use your words.”
To me, the most ineffective teaching method is telling a child to “use their words.”
No one is innocent, and I will admit that first. I have used that prompt in the past. There are a number of reasons I feel we should be cueing our students in different ways. Students with Autism, emotional challenges, and developmental disabilities often hear these words- “use your words.”
As educators, family members, and people… we can do better.
For students with Autism, I see “use your words” as a problem because we are assuming something; that the student has the capability of “using their words” but isn’t.
For students with emotional challenges, we are figuring that there is something that we will unlock for the child when they “use their words.”
For students with developmental disabilities, we are guessing that there are words in there and that there is hope they will use them.
This is not even to consider the prompt dependence that we might foster by giving that cue. This goes for not just the classroom teacher, special education teacher, or the speech/language pathologist. It especially goes for the paraprofessional who has the direct contact with students.
