Autistic children who have apraxia of speech that undermines their ability to articulate sounds and words, and/or put them together in the proper order, are often unwilling to engage in verbal communication. Therefore, even when they are capable of speech, they would refrain from talking altogether or at a bare minimum.
The reaction of these autistic children is understandable, considering the struggle they experience in producing speech that may still be incomprehensible to the listener. However, if they do not overcome their reluctance to speak, they will be caught in a vicious cycle that prevents them from making progress: the less willing they are to speak, the less likely they are to get the necessary practice to improve their verbal communication.
To provide the impetus for their autistic children to speak, caregivers can consider some of the following strategies:
Capitalize on High-Motivation Situations
One of the most effective ways to elicit speech is to seize the opportunities when autistic children want something. Instead of giving them their desired item and activity immediately, prompt them to ask for the item verbally. If they can produce one word, help them to make the request in a phrase and then move progressively to a sentence over time.
Caregivers should anticipate that their autistic children will protest in various ways including tantrums. Although it may tempting for caregivers to decide that their realistic expectation may still be too hard, they should at least elicit some effort on the part of their autistic children. It sets a good precedent for them to step out of their comfort zone to improve in their level of verbal communication.
Institute Conversational Routines in Daily Life
As caregivers and their children go about their daily activities, caregivers should engage their children in conversation about these routines particularly in areas that are of particular interest to their children. Conversation topics may cover their itinerary, the mode of transport, bed-time routines and places of interest items.
Because many of these activities take place with high frequency, these conversational routines will provide ample opportunity for autistic children to practice listening and answering similar questions. Furthermore, as the conversations are taking place within the actual context, autistic children are better able to participate in conversations that they can see are meaningful and relevant to their lives.
Modify Conversational Routines
While conversational routines offer tremendous practice for their autistic children, caregivers should also vary them on a continuous basis. They should never pose questions worded the same way nor in the same sequence day after day. This sort of interaction encourages autistic children to respond by rote memory without even listening to the question.
To truly ascertain whether their autistic children are paying attention to the conversation, caregivers can alter the sequence of the questions and add one or two new ones to the repertoire and catch their children off-guard. These modifications help autistic children to understand that participating in conversations is not the same as regurgitating memorized responses.
Be Playful
Caregivers should also adopt a playful attitude in their verbal communication with their autistic children. They can speak in a sing-song fashion, vary their tone of voice or play along with the verbal stims of their children by asking them silly questions. Such playful verbal interactions help autistic children to view verbal communication as a fun activity, rather than an effort.
Although the task of eliciting speech from some autistic children can be challenging, caregivers can help to encourage verbal communication by: seizing upon high-motivation opportunities; setting up conversation routines that are constantly modified; and engaging in playful verbal interactions with their children.
Kah Ying Choo - Formerly an academic researcher in the U.S. for eight years, I am a writer/educator and a homeschooler of Sebastien, my 12-year-old ...
