Other dog
(or cat)

Besides the humans in a learner's environment, other dogs and cats are perhaps the next most important socially. By introducing other dogs and cats alongside other parents, you can help your learner understand the category of names of other living things. This can pair well with PARENT; however, if you have multiple learners using the board, the complexity of a word that is self-referential may be confusing, and it may be best to delay introduction of the learners' names if both are using the sound board.

Meanings and uses

• Referring to a dog who is a friend

• I would like to play with this specific friend

• Referring to a cat in the same household

• To indicate that she sees a dog outside the window.

Button sounds

• Friend's name

• "Cat"

• "Dog!"

Modeling techniques

Among our group of successful modelers, the following techniques were used:

• We let the learner "choose" this as a button and gauged their reactions to adding particular words to the sound board.

• When the learner is focused on a cat, I would walk her to the board and model "cat"

• When the learner barked about a dog walking by, I pressed the "dog!" button.

What seems to have gotten in the way

Among our group of successful modelers, they avoided doing the following:

• Saying yes until we had confirmation from a friendly dog's mom that the dog was available to play.

• The dog's over-excitement about another dog or cat.