How can I help my learner tell buttons apart?
Dot asks…
Hi! My learner and I are in our fourth week and doing very well! She touches 2 buttons regularly, and the other two sometimes 🥴. My question is; are ideograms better than words on the buttons? Is it the actual placement of the buttons that the learners memorize? Thanks!
This is something that the research team studying AIC are looking into and there’s nothing published as yet, but our opinion is that, while we think (probably most) teachers would rank placement as important, it varies from learner to learner. That’s why it’s really important to make changes carefully, and we talk a lot about not rushing or altering the soundboard too quickly, especially for newer learners.
Some breeds of dog have better close up vision than others. Cats actually have a blind spot right in front of their face because their eyes are set up to focus on distant prey. So it can depend to some degree on how well your learner can see small details close up. That may be a thing you're aware of, but it would also be understandable to be unsure of exactly how good your learner's eye for detail is.
Some learners are definitely just memorizing button location and changes in labels or switching the whole button doesn’t phase them, but others do look at labels. I don't think ideograms are a bad idea but I think you'd get the same result from any distinct shapes. So "Food" doesn't need a picture of a dog bowl on it, but it should ideally have an image that's distinct from the ones on the other buttons.
I'm not crazy about the labels that come with the Fluent Pet buttons because they're all the same size and color and if you squint many of them are hard to tell apart. They're all identical teal blobs.
I think it's useful to use color and patterns to make the labels on the buttons as varied as possible. Keep in mind that for both dogs and cats, blue and yellow will be the brightest colors they can see. There are apps that let you test how things will look to various animals. On our board I've experimented with color and shape and highlighting particular buttons in blue or yellow has definitely been helpful. But keep in mind you don't want to color all of them because then you're repeating the problem of a board of identical buttons.
A lot of folks have made their own button label designs (many of which are freely available for download) but before you go to that much work, I think it's worth getting some colored sharpies* and experimenting to see what's most useful to your learner. You can also buy standard circular labels* to write on (or cut up some regular postage labels) and cover them over with clear tape to protect them.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Bertie’s grubby board has very DIY labels with an emphasis on distinct shapes
Some of these are a little hard to see in this pic but I think it’s clear that they all look different from each other. These are all just the labels that FP includes with the buttons. You can see “Mad” and “Concerned” on the center tile would look very very similar if I hadn’t altered them. I bet you can tell which is which even if you can’t read the label. The bright cartoony looking shapes are buttons we’ve added scratch and sniff stickers to. I’m not sure the scents have been super helpful to Bertie but they still add visual distinction even after the watermelon or root beer smells have worn away.
Bunny’s slightly less grubby board has custom labels
Hue and Saturation can make a big difference. “Good Girl” and “Annie” are both blue but are clearly distinct from each other and from the other colors on the tile. These labels were printed on the sticker labels linked above and covered with packing tape.
Also keep in mind that the labels should also be eye-catching and make sense to YOU. Your ability to find and model the buttons will have the single biggest impact on your learner's use so don't be afraid to use a bright red if it makes sense to you, even though that will look grey to your learner.
Some people have even used scent to distinguish between different buttons. I would be very cautious about things like essential oils because some of them aren't safe for animals but @pawsitivebehaviors has a blind cat who navigates the board partially by smell and she's done things like rub food on the food button and (gross) rub Jasper's eye goop on the Jasper button and she's noted that when she's had to clean the board Jasper has a much more difficult time finding the words she's looking for until they get stinked up again.
We really don't know much about what factors our learners pay attention to to figure out which button is which so feel free to experiment! What we do know is that the most successful teachers pay attention to the things that make their learners comfortable and engaged and go with what works in their household.
*If you buy through our links we get a small commission. It doesn’t cost you anything extra but it really helps out the site!
Another Button Buddy asks…
My dog Ruby is almost 2 years old, we got her when she was 8 weeks.
We started with the buttons around mid to late September 2022. We had slowly added up to 6 buttons based on our understanding of what would interest her. However, initially she wasn’t too keen and later when she would sometimes press, she would confuse the buttons. So, we have cut back to 4 buttons now. Two boards/hextiles with one button each and 1 board/hextile with 2 buttons.
My dog seems to confuse the buttons if there is more than one on the same board/hextile. How can I help her? We cut down the buttons from 6 to 4 to make it less confusing: 2 boards/hextiles with one button each and 1 board/hextile with 2 buttons. The one with two buttons, she only presses one of the buttons independently. So, when I am ready to add a second button to other hextiles, I want to set her up for success.
I emailed some follow-up questions:
When you say she "confused the buttons”, can you describe what that behavior looks like? Is she mashing buttons in a way where you know she wants something, but it's unclear what, or is she doing something like pressing "Walk" and then going to stand by the treat cupboard instead of going towards the door? What are the four words that Ruby has now? And has she been doing better with the buttons since you made the changes to space them out?
By “confused,” I meant that her body language was demonstrating something but she was pressing a different button. For e.g. she is looking at the front door wanting to go outside but would press whatever button was in front of her like scritches or play.
Currently she has:
Tile 1: Outside, Upstairs
Tile 2: Scritches
Tile 3: Treat
She has definitely been doing better since the change.
She presses ‘treat’ multiple times everyday. (Sometimes just to grab our attention since she knows we will come to her)
She presses ‘outside’ independently a few times a week (this is to go to the front yard or for a walk via the front yard. She has access to the backyard via a doggie door) .
She presses ‘scritches’ rarely, mostly uses body language instead.
She doesn’t use ‘upstairs’ independently (only when prompted).
OK, so this is a really common issue early on. It sounds like “Outside” and “Treat” are the two that she really uses. I wonder if “Scritches” and “Upstairs” are maybe not that interesting to her. I imagine she can get scritches just by asking via normal dog body language and if “upstairs” is a place she can go on her own but doesn’t generally go without you (just guessing based on most of the dogs I know) she may not have much interest in talking about it. If she’s got 4 buttons but really only cares about 2, I can see why she might not be that concerned with learning about those other two and differentiating between them.
This also could be a labeling issue. I go into that a lot more in today’s other letter, but I would get a yellow or blue sharpie and just color in the label on the “Outside” button to make it super distinct. If your tiles don’t have plenty of space around them on all sides it’s worth moving your soundboard, as many learners like to press from certain places, see the human they want to talk to, or walk around or across the board. Occasionally they might not like stepping on a tile or just be in the habit of pressing the nearest word because it’s easier! Even if it’s not something you can accommodate for long because you only have a small space, remove any barriers to navigating the board in all directions. That way you can check if there are any layout factors that are especially important to your learner.
A really important thing to do with this kind of confusion is treat every press as if it’s intentional. So if she presses “Upstairs” and you know she wants to go on a walk, go upstairs anyway. You don’t need to spend a half hour up there, but do go up and take a moment to go through the motions of whatever you normally do up there. Sit down in a chair and say “Here we are upstairs!” or whatever. Then if/when the dog seems frustrated, say “Oh, are we done upstairs? Did you want outside?” then go back downstairs, press “Outside,” and go on the walk. Don’t spend a ton of time on this kind of thing, no more than a couple minutes.
The ‘sister’ of treating presses as intentional is making sure buttons have clear and dependable consequences. Your goal is to demonstrate what the button she pressed means, with reliable and clear responses that show her different buttons do different things so which one she presses matters. So be careful not to guess what she wants and not respond to the press, but you don’t want to be so annoying about it that she gets frustrated with the buttons entirely and stops pressing them, which leads me to my next point.
In addition to this specific type of modeling/responding, you’ll want to up your modeling generally. Consciously try to double the amount of modeling you do, and try to model as broadly as possible. I would also give her back the “Play” button, or maybe something like a “Puzzle” button if you guys do puzzles. Something different from Outside and Treat but that’s still motivating. If there’s anything you think she might be trying to use buttons to ask for or talk about then make that a button. Give your new button a color as well and just be really diligent about modeling.
