Skip to content
Special Collection

Rylan Dog Story

Rylan Dog Story is an example of a pretend story.

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Pretend stories for Playing with Words
Series NavigationNext: Mario Story >>

By Linda Hagood

Background

Rylan is a teenager who has light perception only, autism, and significant challenges in the area of cognition and expressive language. His greatest interests and motivations  are in people, swimming, music, and dogs.  Some of his biggest problem areas are in the areas of:

  1. Emotional development/ Self regulation.  He sometimes become angry, aggressive and uses bad language when he is expecting a specific activity and it does not occur, especially when the person he expects is not available.
  2. Social interaction–tends to be passive, doesn’t often initiate action or communication, most interactions are limited to one or two turns.
  3. Expressive communication–limited mostly to requesting, rejecting/ protesting, using mostly single words, sometimes echoes adult speech to maintain an interaction.  Topics for communication are also very limited–mostly related to people.

Goals:

  1. Increase active participation in activities to 10 verbal or nonverbal  turns in each of 5 new social activities.
  2. Transition from solitary to interactive activities without protest
  3. Initiate by adding words or actions to begin an activity or to shift focus of a social activity

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately captions, audio description and transcript are unavailable for these two videos.

Rylan and LindaA boy tells a story with Linda on her laptop

Story:  Red and Rylan Have a Baby Puppy

Screenshot of Rylan Dog Story
Click on text above to download the story.

Reflections on Instruction:  Rylan Dog Story

Reflecting on Instruction: Rylan Dog Story
Download Linda’s reflections on this lesson.

Return to Playing with Words homepage.


SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Microscope
Special Collection

Science Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments

Illustration of a clock
Special Collection

Compensatory Skills: A Focus on Organization

Illustration of teacher pointing to blackboard with basic addition problems
Special Collection

Math Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments