5 Tips
For Engaging a Child with Autism
Adults can support the needs of children with autism by becoming thoughtful about their communication approach. Here are five helpful tips to consider when speaking to a child with Autism.
Help the child’s comprehension by providing visual supports.
Verbal information is fleeting and goes away as quickly as it is spoken. Providing visual supports such as representational objects, pictures, consistent gestures or written words helps children reference that information when hearing verbal instructions. Further the static nature of the visual information prolongs the child’s opportunity to take-in and process the information.
Reduce verbal output to simple short phrases
Autism causes deficits to varying degrees in the ability to understand verbal sounds and attach meaning to them. As children learn the labels of things they can learn to use and understand consistently produced spoken language. Keeping the verbal output simple and direct helps the child to hear the information more clearly. Single words or repeatedly used short phrases can be memorized and correlated with the items, actions, or concepts they represent.
Speak in concrete terms to establish meaning
Children with autism learn language through building correlations between the sounds and tangible objects or simple observable actions. They learn to label objects, obvious motions, or simple experiential concepts such as hot/cold but struggle with abstract concepts such as feelings, emotions, yes/no questions and why questions.
Observe how common expressions may confuse a child with autism.
Slang language that uses various words for the same meaning or one word for various meanings is very confusing for children with autism. For example, we greet each other with hi, hello, good morning, what’s up, how’s it going, etcetera. To help a child with autism know when to respond to a greeting try to use the same phrase over and over again that will be appropriate in all settings. Hello is a great word.
An example of one word with multiple meanings is the word No. No can be used as a reprimand (No hitting), to indicate a lack of an item or expression of the number zero (there are no chips left), or a refusal (no candy). These various uses can confuse a child with autism. Changing some of the expressions will be helpful for instance No Hitting can become Hands Down and No chips can be stated as All-Gone. Be creative then become consistent with your meaningful phrases.
Say what to-do instead of what not-to-do
Many children with autism will often be able to comprehend and respond to only parts of spoken sentences. It is my experience that children with autism most often respond to the very last thing they hear. Statements such as No Running, and No Standing may be processed only as Running, and Standing. The children may therefore respond opposite to what the adult is expecting. Telling your child to Walk, and Sit will provide clearer instructions and give a direction of what to-do.
