Home  Michael  My Talker  AAC  Language:  Core Words:  3-4 Yrs  100 Adult  Starter  GCV  Dolce  

Words:  Mick  Mum  English  Teachers  Databases:  LAM & PeRT  Progress Monitor  LLL Flashcards

When I showed Michael's English Teacher the two high frequency vocabulary lists that Professor Bruce Baker gave us at a Minspeak Study Day in March 2003 (see 100 and 300), and raved on about how I now knew which words it is most important to teach Michael on his Pathfinder to enable his expressive communication, Helen gave me the Dolce list, above.

I was so glad that school has its own reference to core vocabulary, as many children with communication needs are not provided adequate access to these important little words due to, e.g., faulty beliefs held by some professionals that core words are 'too abstract' to be understood by a child with learning difficulties.

It is interesting to note that there are no nouns in the first 100 most common reading words, and only 22 in the second 100. I say this because basal language testing in children (e.g. Peabody) consists almost solely of noun identification, which does not test functional language development at all, and teachers and therapists working with children with complex communication needs often focus exclusively on nouns and adjectives, in preparation for such testing, according to Professor Bruce Baker, Communication Matters National Symposium, Leicester University, September 2005, and our own personal experience.