Focus on Function: Gaining Essential Communication – 2nd Edition

Details: 297 pages, 8.5" x 11", spiral-bound softcover

ISBN13: 978-1-416-40200-8

Release Date: 2007

Focus on Function–Second Edition is a compendium of functional communication activities developed for the individual with mild to moderate deficits in reading, writing, listening and speaking that impact daily life.  You will also find Focus on Function–Second Edition to be an important tool for your adolescent and adult students who speak English as a second language (ESL), those with learning differences, and others needing to strengthen communicative activities of daily living. The primary purpose of Focus on Function–Second Edition is to foster independence.  

Each activity is categorized according to guidelines established by the American Speech Language Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Functional Communication Measures (FCMs), the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) skills categories, and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Codes.  

The activities are organized into the following areas:

• Basic Communication, including expressing ideas and starting conversations
• Using the Phone, including making appointments and taking messages
• Managing and Understanding Time, including designing a schedule and using a calendar
• Managing and Understanding Finances, including check writing and using an ATM
• Shopping, including working with money and using coupons
• Meals and Cooking, including planning menus, writing shopping lists, and cooking
• Getting Around, including reading and understanding signs, symbols and maps
• Activities around the House, including ordering, reading directions, writing letters
• Social Participation, including social exchanges and discussing feelings and emotions
• Leisure Activities, including using the internet and communicating via email
• Work Related Tasks, including resume writing and completing applications

This highly useful book includes a Skills Assessment Inventory and a Communication History and Interest Form to determine which skill areas need reinforcement and to focus on the personal, vocational and social interests of the client or student.  

The manual provides reproducible workbook pages and tasks such as:

• checks
• application forms
• calendars
• maps
• TV logs
• recipes
• restaurant menus and check
• monthly bills
• catalog pages
• photos

This book is useful to speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers of adolescents and adults, ESL instructors, counselors, and psychologists.