All Answers Don’t Look The Same (Part I)

By Laurel Owens

Everyone’s voice deserves to be heard, and everyone deserves the chance to answer. But what about our friends who can’t answer “out loud”?

Laurel and Her Brother

So often we find ourselves in a cabin time or Campaigner group, and our “talkative” friends control the conversation. To include our non-verbal friends we need to be “creative” in finding ways to give them equal chances to participate. Not everyone answers questions the same way, so here are some ways to answer a question without speaking:

• Draw or paint your answer
• “Imagine” the answer by picturing an image in your mind
• Act out the answer
• Sculpt your answer out of play-dough
• Use magnetic ABC letters and spell the answer
• Sign the answer (This is a fun way to teach sign language to all the students)
• Sing your answer (Many friends with speech delays do not have vocal delays!)
• Use facial expressions to answer how the person in the lesson felt.

This allows for a really unique opportunity to “take turns” answering how a particular student would answer the question. For example, “Suzy answers by creating a picture of her answer in her mind. Let’s all create a picture in our minds of our answers and answer like Suzy would.” We are teaching our friends that all answers don’t look the same, just like all people don’t look or act the same, but we can celebrate and share/learn from those differences!