Support Communication Tip sheet - Autism Hub



Tips for supporting communication at home

Developing communication skills is imperative for all children. It allows them to communicate their needs and wants, express themselves, and develop relationships with others. Communication skills are comprised of both our ability to express ourselves to others (expressive language), as well as our ability to understand what others are saying to us (receptive language).

The development of communication skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often unique for each child. Some children may lead parents by the hand to ask for something, some may point or yell, some children may use words, others may use whole sentences and some children may have whole scripts of sentences from television that they can repeat but cannot use to communicate with others.

All children can be supported to develop functional methods of communicating with others, and the goals that you set for your child will be based upon their individual strengths and needs, as well as family priorities. Remember, while vocalisation or words are the most common way of communicating with others, Alternative or Augmentative Communication (AAC) methods can also be used effectively by children. These include signing, high tech devices such as interactive voice output devices and tablets, or low-tech devices such as picture cards.

The home environment can be set up to encourage children to communicate with others. Many parents are in tune with their child’s wants and needs across the day and this can lead to a routine where parents pre-empt the needs of their child and provide them with access to their needs and wants. The difficulty with this situation is that it can create an environment where children do not necessarily communicate with others to have their needs and wants met.

For example, a child enjoys an apple when they arrive home from school. The parent is aware of this and rather than having the apple waiting for them on the dining table, the parent could have the apple so it can be seen but not reached, so the child has to ask for it. This provides an opportunity for the child to communicate with others.

A range of tips are outlined below, however this information is general. For specific information on ways to support the development of your child’s communication skills, it is recommended that you speak with your child’s speech-language pathologist.

Tips to encourage your child to communicate include:

• tempting and enticing your child to communicate (e.g. put toys in containers that your child cannot open so, when they want the toy, they need to ask you for it)

• responding to attempts to request and comment

• praising all attempts

• modelling appropriate language

• providing visuals to support the development of language skills from single words to sentence formation

• encouraging your child to communicate with a range of people

• taking a fun and playful approach to the development of language using games and your child’s special interests as motivators.

Tips when giving instructions include:

• gaining your child’s attention through calling their name or by touch

• giving short instructions that tell your child what they need to do (avoid ambiguous language)

• giving your child time to process the information (e.g. 10 to 15 seconds)

• checking for understanding (e.g. “Can you tell me what we need to do now?”).

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