Anna & Bertie
Artist
Not sure what should go here. Just tryna teach this dog to talk. He's a 9 year old, 6 lb toy poodle named Bertie.
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What's a good first button?
Outside and Play are the words you'll see recommended most frequently.Β What makes Outside a useful starter is that it happens multiple times a day so thereβs lots of opportunities for modeling. With the first button the dogs have a lot to learn. They have to learn what a button is, that they can push it, that it makes a sound, that *something* happens when the button gets pressed, etc. Outside doesnβt have to be your first button but those are the considerations you should have in mind when choosing a word. If you only go on a walk once a day then you wonβt have very frequent opportunities to model it.
My learner is bad at pressing buttons (digs at them/won't touch them/seem afraid of them), what do I do?
This is my favorite video for teaching a dog to press buttons. It will work with any species of learner. Donβt do this with button that has a word that you want to teach your learner, get a blank one to practice with. You donβt want to confuse them about what the words mean (ie: if your dog gets a treat every time they press Outside, they might think Outside means treat). If you get the sense they're frightened of the noise then practice with nothing recorded or the button off. If you donβt think that thatβs an issue then put in a nonsense word (boing, beep, boop) so they get used to the idea that making the button make a noise is the goal. My dog paws at the buttons so right now during button practice he gets *a* treat for any press but a big ol' jackpot for a solid press with one foot and no digging.
Here is a great forum post about teaching button usage.
My learner doesn't seem to understand what different buttons mean?
Keep modeling! Always respond to a button press, even if you think it's not what your learner means. If your learner hits a button and you know she means something else you still need to respond as if itβs sincere. Thatβs how they learn that different buttons mean different things. If youβre always guessing the thing you think she means and doing that, then she doesnβt have any incentive to make herself clear and it can muddy the waters if she *does* mean what she presses and/or is trying to express something new.
This could also be a space issue. If you have a lot of buttons close together it may be difficult for your learner to tell them apart. Here is a very good post about board layout.
My learner was doing well but now they've stopped pressing buttons entirely!
Have you made any big changes to your setup recently? This frequently happens when teachers make changes too quickly. Changes like switching out buttons for a different brand, moving the buttons to new locations, adding tiles under the buttons, or adding new words too fast. If you're moving a button to a new location do it slowly, we're talking a couple inches a day. If you're swapping in new buttons do it one at a time. Introduce one tile under one button rather than setting up a whole soundboard at once. Each of these changes is a whole new thing for your learner, so give them time. And if you think you went a little too fast, it's OK to go back a step or two to a setup you know your learner was confident with.
My learner is pushing the buttons way too much!
A lot of learners go a little crazy with the buttons once they realize they can make you do things with them. This is good! It's learning! It's also a good time to introduce the All Done button. A good discussion of that is here. If your learner is chewing up tiles and/or buttons and you're worried about them damaging themselves or the soundboard, here is an excellent video about tackling that issue.
What does this word combo mean?
You know your learner better than anybody! What do you think they mean? If it's not obvious, think about different ways your learner could be using language. If it's not a request, could it be descriptive? Could your learner be narrating what's happening now, or what happened in the past? Could it be informative? If it doesn't seem like any of that but you don't think it was just an accidental button press, maybe it was just experimentation. When toddlers are learning to speak they might string together a lot of words that don't make sense. It's nothing to worry about, just make sure you're modeling the buttons and responding to the presses accordingly.
How do I track my learner's progress?
Having a camera on the board is extremely helpful. There are several threads about what cameras work best in Tech Support. I use the app Alfred with an old phone.
Here is a link to info about the official study and a template for setting up a Google Form to track button presses. There is also an app in development and this will be updated with info about that when it's ready.
Is my learner behind?
Nope! This movement has spread over social media and you don't see very many learners there who aren't having amazing conversations. It's really easy to compare What About Bunny or Billie Speaks to your learner who keeps confusing Walk and Tug and worry that your learner isn't as smart or you're doing something wrong. But those are learners and teachers who've been working for months and months at this! Bunny has been using the buttons for over a year. Every learner will learn at a different speed, and also every learner will have different interests. It's OK if your learner never gets to the point where you can discuss philosophy together. The important thing is your relationship with your learner and their ability to express what they want to express.Β
Outside and Play are the words you'll see recommended most frequently.Β What makes Outside a useful starter is that it happens multiple times a day so thereβs lots of opportunities for modeling. With the first button the dogs have a lot to learn. They have to learn what a button is, that they can push it, that it makes a sound, that *something* happens when the button gets pressed, etc. Outside doesnβt have to be your first button but those are the considerations you should have in mind when choosing a word. If you only go on a walk once a day then you wonβt have very frequent opportunities to model it.
My learner is bad at pressing buttons (digs at them/won't touch them/seem afraid of them), what do I do?
This is my favorite video for teaching a dog to press buttons. It will work with any species of learner. Donβt do this with button that has a word that you want to teach your learner, get a blank one to practice with. You donβt want to confuse them about what the words mean (ie: if your dog gets a treat every time they press Outside, they might think Outside means treat). If you get the sense they're frightened of the noise then practice with nothing recorded or the button off. If you donβt think that thatβs an issue then put in a nonsense word (boing, beep, boop) so they get used to the idea that making the button make a noise is the goal. My dog paws at the buttons so right now during button practice he gets *a* treat for any press but a big ol' jackpot for a solid press with one foot and no digging.
Here is a great forum post about teaching button usage.
My learner doesn't seem to understand what different buttons mean?
Keep modeling! Always respond to a button press, even if you think it's not what your learner means. If your learner hits a button and you know she means something else you still need to respond as if itβs sincere. Thatβs how they learn that different buttons mean different things. If youβre always guessing the thing you think she means and doing that, then she doesnβt have any incentive to make herself clear and it can muddy the waters if she *does* mean what she presses and/or is trying to express something new.
This could also be a space issue. If you have a lot of buttons close together it may be difficult for your learner to tell them apart. Here is a very good post about board layout.
My learner was doing well but now they've stopped pressing buttons entirely!
Have you made any big changes to your setup recently? This frequently happens when teachers make changes too quickly. Changes like switching out buttons for a different brand, moving the buttons to new locations, adding tiles under the buttons, or adding new words too fast. If you're moving a button to a new location do it slowly, we're talking a couple inches a day. If you're swapping in new buttons do it one at a time. Introduce one tile under one button rather than setting up a whole soundboard at once. Each of these changes is a whole new thing for your learner, so give them time. And if you think you went a little too fast, it's OK to go back a step or two to a setup you know your learner was confident with.
My learner is pushing the buttons way too much!
A lot of learners go a little crazy with the buttons once they realize they can make you do things with them. This is good! It's learning! It's also a good time to introduce the All Done button. A good discussion of that is here. If your learner is chewing up tiles and/or buttons and you're worried about them damaging themselves or the soundboard, here is an excellent video about tackling that issue.
What does this word combo mean?
You know your learner better than anybody! What do you think they mean? If it's not obvious, think about different ways your learner could be using language. If it's not a request, could it be descriptive? Could your learner be narrating what's happening now, or what happened in the past? Could it be informative? If it doesn't seem like any of that but you don't think it was just an accidental button press, maybe it was just experimentation. When toddlers are learning to speak they might string together a lot of words that don't make sense. It's nothing to worry about, just make sure you're modeling the buttons and responding to the presses accordingly.
How do I track my learner's progress?
Having a camera on the board is extremely helpful. There are several threads about what cameras work best in Tech Support. I use the app Alfred with an old phone.
Here is a link to info about the official study and a template for setting up a Google Form to track button presses. There is also an app in development and this will be updated with info about that when it's ready.
Is my learner behind?
Nope! This movement has spread over social media and you don't see very many learners there who aren't having amazing conversations. It's really easy to compare What About Bunny or Billie Speaks to your learner who keeps confusing Walk and Tug and worry that your learner isn't as smart or you're doing something wrong. But those are learners and teachers who've been working for months and months at this! Bunny has been using the buttons for over a year. Every learner will learn at a different speed, and also every learner will have different interests. It's OK if your learner never gets to the point where you can discuss philosophy together. The important thing is your relationship with your learner and their ability to express what they want to express.Β
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So I have been condensing all Bertieβs words into a proper board because it was difficult to model (and keep track of) all the loose buttons scattered across the house. But I donβt have enough/the proper tiles to spread/organize the buttons the way I want to. Iβve ordered more tiles but they wonβt arrive until the end of Feb according to the tracking info.Β
Right now I have a loose button and some other buttons on tiles that I donβt want them on (for instance I have a descriptors tile that has some time words and some feelings words on it and Iβm planning to split those across two tiles). Iβm trying to decide if I should leave everything as it is and only make changes once the new tiles arrive and I can put them where Iβd like them to stay or if I should take the buttons that are in the wrong places off and let them be free until I get the proper tile for them. The problem with having loose buttons is that Bertie is much much more likely to press any loose button than one thatβs on a tile, even if itβs a word he knows and likes.Β
Right now I have a loose button and some other buttons on tiles that I donβt want them on (for instance I have a descriptors tile that has some time words and some feelings words on it and Iβm planning to split those across two tiles). Iβm trying to decide if I should leave everything as it is and only make changes once the new tiles arrive and I can put them where Iβd like them to stay or if I should take the buttons that are in the wrong places off and let them be free until I get the proper tile for them. The problem with having loose buttons is that Bertie is much much more likely to press any loose button than one thatβs on a tile, even if itβs a word he knows and likes.Β
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I went to the fluent pet site to order a couple more tiles but the menu lists them by words type ie: social, descriptors, nouns. But I donβt know which patterns those words are supposed to correspond to. I also canβt guess by the order of the pictures of the tiles because there are. Am I missing something on the fluent pet site that actually indicates the specific names of the patterns? What I need is the ability to order βcheckerboardβ or βsmall pointy trianglesβ.
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So this might have been nothing but I thought it was interesting at the time. Bertie has one trick (twist) that is one of the first things he learned as a puppy and is ingrained in his brain as the thing he Does for treats. I make him do it every day for his pills (he gets them in peanut butter and if heβs βearnedβ them heβs way more excited for them than if Iβm trying desperately to get him to eat them). He does it automatically now for any treat I give him βjust because.β I will ask for it sometimes but most of the time he offers it reflexively. Lately heβs been pressing the Hungry button 3-4 (up from about 2 average) times over the course of the evening. Usually i give him 1) two thirds of dinner, 2) remaining third of dinner and chopped carrot, 3) just chopped carrot, 4) carrots all the way down. tonight when he pressed hungry for the fourth time I just straight up handed him a baby carrot and I fully expected him to do twist for it even though I hadnβt asked him to. But he didnβt. I donβt make him do βworkβ for his meals and I think he was thinking βI hit the button, this is a meal, so I can just have this.β Or I have it to him before he had the chance to offer the behavior. Still not sure which, but definitely something Iβm going to keep track of going forward.
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We gave Bertie a Hungry button and its defo the one he understands the best and is most excited to use. He hasnβt been over using it, genuinely only pressing it when heβs hungry for a meal. Heβs been eating dinner much earlier in the day and then very occasionally (and perhaps experimentally) asking for evening snacks. Heβs underweight so all that is fine and Iβve adjusted his meals with the assumption that heβll ask for at least one extra. But lately heβs started hitting the Hungry button when weβre cooking to beg for people food. If he hasnβt eaten recently I just feed him his own food but yesterday my roommate made herself and sandwich and then I made myself one and he was just mashing the button but had already had two extra meals. We both just said βhungry all doneβ but it was interesting because this is the first time heβs extrapolated a different but correctly related meaning to a word.
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So Bertie has figured out buttons make us do stuff but he's still working out that different buttons do different things. One thing he's started doing now is just spamming all the buttons but his favorite is "Help".Β
He's decided that one means "pay attention to me" and I'm not sure how to correct him. We always make a show of looking for a toy/asking what he needs help with but he still gets attention that way. When he does the same thing with "play" we can either play or say "play all done" or "play later" but I can't help him if he doesn't actually need it, and even if I redirect to "play" his "pay attention to me" has all been accomplished.Β
Suggestions would be great. When our next batch of buttons comes we will give him a "pet" button and a few other new action/emotion words, so maybe just having more precise options that get him what he wants faster will wean him off "help"?
He's decided that one means "pay attention to me" and I'm not sure how to correct him. We always make a show of looking for a toy/asking what he needs help with but he still gets attention that way. When he does the same thing with "play" we can either play or say "play all done" or "play later" but I can't help him if he doesn't actually need it, and even if I redirect to "play" his "pay attention to me" has all been accomplished.Β
Suggestions would be great. When our next batch of buttons comes we will give him a "pet" button and a few other new action/emotion words, so maybe just having more precise options that get him what he wants faster will wean him off "help"?
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Bertie not regularly using his βhungryβ button unprompted yet, but he does lick his lips every time he presses it.
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We got our buttons this week and they are great but it would be nice if a few blank stickers were included. We only have 6 words but we still had to repurpose a sticker cause one of our words wasn't on the suggested list. I would also prefer the option to not have a pictogram. No offense to your graphic design team but not all of them make intuitive sense to me so we have to write the meaning in anyway and the picture leaves less space to write.Β
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So it seems like about half the people on this forum are speech language pathologists, and the next largest population is dog trainers. For me, Iβve been fascinated by operant conditioning and the way it allows us to communicate with non-human animals for a long time. I remember reading a lament from a dolphin trainer that dolphins are trained with ASL, which is not something they can ever respond to because they donβt have hands. For me, this button training was a natural extension of that interest, in giving animals the opportunity to talk back. All of the two way communication that I already had with my dog (before buttons) was a result of clicker training and my dog understanding the concept of a reward marker. But Iβm not sure how many of the people here actually have much familiarity with operant conditioning.
Iβve already seen several references in the forums to βshaping behaviorβ but Iβm not sure everybody here will be familiar with that terminology/concept. I donβt want to get sidetracked or derail the language research thatβs driving this project, but I also think it might be extremely helpful to compile some resources about basic clicker training and positive reinforcement theory. Iβm happy to compile some resources for people but also since there are a lot of dog trainers here Iβm sure they have more up to date suggestions than I have.
For an overview of the history and science of operant conditioning and how it plays out in every day life I Highly recommend the book Donβt Shoot The Dog by Karen Pryor.
For basic dog training stuff https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup Is great.
Thereβs also a lot of good info at https://www.clickertraining.com/taxonomy/term/28 (this link Is specifically to a page of articles that are all introductory level clicker training stuff but thereβs a loooot of other info there if you click around.
Iβve already seen several references in the forums to βshaping behaviorβ but Iβm not sure everybody here will be familiar with that terminology/concept. I donβt want to get sidetracked or derail the language research thatβs driving this project, but I also think it might be extremely helpful to compile some resources about basic clicker training and positive reinforcement theory. Iβm happy to compile some resources for people but also since there are a lot of dog trainers here Iβm sure they have more up to date suggestions than I have.
For an overview of the history and science of operant conditioning and how it plays out in every day life I Highly recommend the book Donβt Shoot The Dog by Karen Pryor.
For basic dog training stuff https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup Is great.
Thereβs also a lot of good info at https://www.clickertraining.com/taxonomy/term/28 (this link Is specifically to a page of articles that are all introductory level clicker training stuff but thereβs a loooot of other info there if you click around.
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Not sure if this is the best place for this but Iβm curious. We donβt have many words yet and also weβre not doing any traveling right now because of the unpleasantness. But for those of you with learners who are expressing fairly complex ideas, do you/would you take your word boards on a longer trip? Is it distressing for your learner to not have that means of expression?
