One of the most important elements of teaching language and communication is making sure that we create many, many opportunities to practice it throughout the day. Language is something that you have to practice and use in order for it to maintain. Practicing it in many situations and in many different ways increases the likelihood that it will generalize and maintain. I generally like to get at least 5 opportunities to practice at least one communication or language skill in each activity of the day. I use a data sheet (download it free here) to plan out the communication goals across the day and the 5 boxes remind everyone to create those opportunities. This also allows me to see if I need to provide more training on how to create opportunities when the boxes aren't filled in. In addition to supporting communication of the students, the strategies below also serve as visual cues to the adults to create the opportunities.