5 Tips for Improving Communication in Your Child with Special Needs

It is exciting times. Our son Richie who has autism is sixteen-years-old and has started using words to communicate. We know we have a long way to go before he starts using full sentences, but this is an amazing start. Especially, when I was told by professionals that Richie would never speak when he was diagnosed with autism at age two. In this post I'll be sharing some of the methods we've been using to help facilitate Richie's ability to communicate with us and others. 

Our family believes Richie will develop an effective way to communicate with us that he will use and rely on independently. We believe he will be gainfully employed and we believe he will live a life as independent as possible. We don’t know for certain what kind of life Richie will have, but what we do know is that as a family, we will never give up on him. 

I once had a speech therapist tell me at an IEP meeting that “Richie wasn’t interested in communicating with us.” I remember I had to take a moment to think carefully about how I would answer. Then I replied, “I respectfully disagree.” She looked at me with a surprised look on her face and said, “you disagree?” 

Of course, I disagreed with her.  We ended the IEP meeting on civil terms despite our differences.  I can understand that perhaps based on Richie’s body language that it’s easy to conclude he isn’t interested in communicating with us.  However, Richie has always demonstrated a strong interest in speech. Richie sings, repeats movie phrases, words, things we say around the house (we learned this the bad way!), he uses gestures often and hand leads us to what he wants. All these things express a genuine interest in communicating with us. We shouldn’t confuse one’s inability to do something with their desire to do it. I have been using the following tips working with Richie to improve his communication skills for years. I fully expect him to continue to make progress, find his voice and use it.  

Here are some tips I hope you find helpful for increasing and improving expressive (express yourself using language) and receptive (comprehension of what is being said to you) language:

•  Make a list of the words and phrases your child understands (receptive) and can speak (expressive). Naturally, the receptive list will be longer than the expressive. This list provides a good foundation for improving language. Use it as a guide for focusing on the expansion of words to teach or improve. For example, when Richie has an itch, he’ll point to the itchy area and say, “itchy, itchy.” Of course, when he says this, we’ll scratch his arm, leg, head, etc.  To teach Richie more words, we decided to teach him to say, “want scratch.” So when he does have an itch, we’ll get him to say “want scratch” and then we’ll scratch the itchy area. It’s important to teach our kids the value of language. Why should they try to rely on it if it doesn’t work for them? 

• Take pictures of household items (table, refrigerator, television, lamp, etc.), things around your home and label them. This helps to improve picture-word association. It also helps to improve your child’s vocabulary. It was especially helpful to have taken actual pictures of our household items because it was already familiar to Richie. I also have a visual schedule and chore board for him to refer to on a daily basis. 

• Create a Communication Book. If you’re using the PEC (Picture Exchange Communication) System, then you’re already giving your child an outlet to communicate. I use a variation of PECS. I made a picture book of actual pictures (Richie didn’t do well with the cartoonish looking ones). I have a section for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner foods. I have a section for restaurants and their picture menu’s. I have a section of preferred activities (pictures of Richie doing his favorite things – going swimming, swinging on a swing, going to Busch Gardens, or playing with his iPad. I have a section of Richie doing his different chores (taking out the garbage, recycling, etc.).  Creating this book will help your child to make choices and communicate their preferred activity, place to visit, or food to eat. Tip: Make sure the choices available are ones that can actually be fulfilled. Remember we want our children to value the power of any communication method used. If they choose to go the beach and you’re not able to take them, then this form of communication may seem ineffective to them. 

• I also took pictures of things we always have in our refrigerator and pantry. I attached them to the fridge and pantry door with Velcro, this way if Richie wants a specific snack or drink, all he has to do is pull the picture and bring it to us! Once he mastered bringing us the picture of his desired snack or drink, we stepped it up by asking him to try to say the word as best as he can. He's usually pretty good at repeating the word. 

• Create a Conversation Book.  Often, people with autism or other developmental disabilities that interfere with communication and socialization, don’t get to engage in ordinary conversation with others. A friend who is a colleague and behavior analyst gave me the idea for this tip! A conversation book gives Richie the opportunity to share facts about himself and his interests with others. He asks to engage with others using the conversation book often. Please feel free to use this template to create your own. It's not a pdf so you can tailor it to your loved one's interests. 

Every child and person with a disability learns to communicate on their own time. There is no age limit or universal clock silently ticking away to a talk deadline! Don’t let anyone convince you that if your child hasn’t started talking by five-years-old, then the likelihood is that they never will. That is utter nonsense. Children and adults have started talking or learned to master some form of communication long after their fifth birthday! All you need to do as a parent is what you’ve been doing all along. Love your child, have patience with your child, and work on ways to expand and improve their vocabulary. Once your child learns the value of language, communication will inevitably follow.