Communication

All children have their own preferred way of communication. It is important to recognise and encourage all forms of communication – not only speech. For non-speaking or minimally verbal children, this might include the use of visuals, gestures, echolalia or vocal stimming.



Identifying needs:

All children require a means of communication in order to have their basic needs met, to express emotion, and to communicate their views and preferences.

Frustrations can arise when communication attempts are misunderstood or misinterpreted due to differences in neurotypical and neurodivergent communication styles (see: Double Empathy Problem).

Parents and practitioners should be aware of the child’s communication preferences in order to ensure the child’s feelings and needs are known, and to support their interactions with others. The Autism Good Practice Guide for Schools identifies the key areas for gathering information on children’s language and communication skills as Attention, Receptive language, Expressive language, and Social/Pragmatic language:

Attention – Does the child demonstrate joint attention? For example, both the practitioner and the child looking at something and then looking at each other? Does the student initiate joint attention by calling attention to something?

Receptive language – How does the child respond to verbal direction or instruction? Can they follow an instruction when aided by a visual prompt such as a symbol or picture indicating what they are supposed to do?

Expressive language – How does the child express their needs and wants? Do they use gestures? What motivates the child to smile and to express joy, and how is this used to create opportunities to extend their expressive language?

Social/pragmatic language – How does the child interact as part of a group? For a child who is preverbal or non-speaking how do they communicate their functional needs? For a child who is speaking, how do they initiate a conversation? Can they take turns in a conversation? Do they need explicit instructions to maintain and repair conversations?

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