Dialogue

[Lecka]

Any tricks or ideas for keeping track of which character is speaking, when two characters speak back and forth and are not always labelled?

This is with Nate the Great, so not too hard or anything.

But, there is a lot of “blah blah blah,” said x. “Blah blah blah,” said y.

But you (as far as I know) only figure out from context, if the second “blah blah blah” is x continuing to speak, or y responding.  

My only idea is to make a copy, and use a highlighter on the dialogue to show who is speaking.  

[PeterPan]

If he can read the text aloud, then you could take turns reading characters and slow down and figure it out that way. 

Does he listen to audiobooks or the tv while he's playing or other things where he would have no visual cues?

Have you tried making popsicle stick puppets or clothespin puppets of the people and reading it aloud with them? That's what I do on stuff that is hard to follow. Even picture versions of Shakespeare are really hard to follow, so for that we have made puppets out of clothespins and felt. Happily, you'd get to re-use many of the characters you make for a series book, and they're just fun. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by PeterPan

[Lecka]

He does not listen to anything with dialogue (beyond very small amounts) without visual cues.    

When I read to him I over-emphasize with pauses, I think, to help make it more clear.  

Thanks for the ideas!

I think writing some things out as just the dialogue, and having a role, and not having all the “he said, she said” could help.  

This is for a book that he can understand easily when I read it to him and make it clear by how I read, so I do know he understands it.  

[Lecka]

It turns out he is doing better with listening to me read out loud a few more times.  

[Lecka]

I am turning out to need to go back to some easier storybooks that have dialogue.  

I am looking at Arthur books right now.... 

[PeterPan]

Maybe take some old socks and make puppets?

[Lecka]

He has made some good progress!  He is getting that a new sentence may be “said” by a different person than the previous person, even if it isn’t clearly introduced (but would be obvious from context).  Looking back to see I posted about this on Oct. 28, it really hasn’t taken that long.

I need to figure out some way to notice progress, I don’t have a good sense of how long some things take or what progress is being made.  I am trying to notice more, and I have been going back to have him re-read some things we worked on a few months ago, to be able to see how he has improved.  It is easy to feel like he is not really getting anywhere as it feels very slow from day to day.  

[PeterPan]

With the narrative language stuff like SKILL/Gillam, they have checklists and you just go through and mark the trials and how much support was needed to get there. I agree with you that he probably has made progress and that you can quantify it! And progress includes faded supports, no just b&w has it or doesn't. If he's getting a goal, even with supports/prompts, you're still making progress. Then your data can track how it fades over time.

Good job! 

[PeterPan]

Btw, remember that syntax drives meaning and narrative. So like when you're working on a skill, you have both the narrative component to it (did he follow the flow, who was talking, how it fit in the story) but you also have a syntactical structure (complex sentence, that-clause, etc.). So you're actually doing double work there, which is GREAT but also why it takes a while and is hard. So you can notice where you're supporting for syntax or the narrative structure and get nuanced there. Like he might need some support for the syntax even when the narrative understanding comes and you might then go ok so I'll reinforce that syntax at other times during our day to try to drive that.