Practical Ways Parents Can Encourage Communication Skills in Children with Autism

Most children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face challenges with communication. These communication deficits are seen not just in spoken language but also in the understanding and use of non-verbal cues such as body language, gestures, glares, tone of voice and more.

The challenges that they face in communication can cause other ill-effects, including trouble establishing meaningful relationships, learning, obtaining and holding a job, and much more.

Luckily, there are treatment plans that can help children with autism improve their communication skills. Applied behavior analysis, or ABA therapy, is considered the leading treatment plan in this regard.

While children on the autism spectrum will learn a lot of new skills in ABA therapy sessions, there are also things that parents can do at home to help their children communicate better.

Here are some practical ways that parents can encourage communication skills in children with autism.

Table Of Contents

Positive Reinforcement

ABA therapy uses positive reinforcement prominently throughout many different strategies. The reasoning is quite simple — it works.

Positive reinforcement involves rewarding children when they do something you want them to do, whether it be following a direction or communicating what they want or need effectively. This reward can be extra praise or time with a toy that they love.

Parents can easily use this strategy at home to encourage their children to build communication skills.

Prompts

ABA therapists will use various prompts as a strategy to notify children that it’s time to do something. These prompts can be visual, verbal, physical or some combination of the above.

For instance, a therapist may hold up a picture of a toothbrush while saying “toothbrush” if they want the child to start brushing their teeth. These prompts help the child understand what it is the therapist is requesting of them, which makes it easier for them to actually complete the task.

Over time, these prompts are then faded away gradually, which allows the child to master skills independently.

Parents can follow this same strategy at home, using almost anything as a prompt. If you want your child to choose between an apple and an orange for a snack, for example, you can hold an apple in one hand and an orange in another and say “apple or banana,” while emphasizing the hand that holds each.

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Modeling

Modeling is a strategy that all parents will find successful when they’re teaching their children new skills, whether their child has autism or not. This involves showing your child what it is you want them to do by actually doing it yourself first.

In the case of brushing your teeth, you can say “brush your teeth” while picking up the toothbrush and pretending to brush your own teeth. Your child will watch you do this, after hearing you say the prompt, and that gives them a visual example that they can then mimic.

Modeling can be used for simple tasks such as brushing your teeth or for much more complex tasks, too.

Play

It’s amazing how much learning is done through play. That’s why a lot of ABA therapy is play-based, and why many other types of early intervention and even formal schooling integrate play.

By playing with your children in a purposeful way, you can encourage them to communicate. You can use different toys and games to encourage your child to express what they want and how they’re feeling.

You can even help them work through sensory issues they may face with things such as sensory bins. For many children, these are actually quite calming and also allow them to explore and learn new things.

Other added benefits of playing with your children is it allows them to practice some of their fine motor skills while improving their imaginative play.

Blue Gems ABA Uses Many Strategies to Support Children with Autism

Parents can follow some of the practical ways laid out above to help encourage their children with autism to communicate. There are many other ways that this can be done, too, by working with their child’s ABA therapist to develop strategies that work.

At Blue Gems ABA, we use many different strategies to help encourage children with autism to communicate, and to support them in whatever ways they need to live independent lives. All of our ABA therapy treatment plans are customized to each individual child, based on their unique strengths and challenges.

To learn more, please contact us today.