Do you know a child with autism who isn’t able to communicate basic wants and needs?  Does the child lack the social skills to participate in social interactions?  Do you need a guide for how to improve functional communication in a young child with autism?

Well don’t you worry, you’ve come to the right place!  I’m going to show you the top four skills to start targeting to improve functional communication in a young children with autism or suspected autism.  Let me show you what those four skills are and how to work on them.  Click “play” on the player below to hear the entire episode, or scroll down to get the show notes below.

No-Prep Activities and Resources for Helping Non-Speaking Children Learn to Speak

All children have the right to communicate.  No disorder, disease, or physical limitation should be able to take that right away from them.  For that reason, it is our obligation to make sure that all children with autism have SOME way to communicate with us.  Speaking may be too hard for them so sometimes we need to come up with other ways of helping them communicate.  Here’s how we can do that:

The first thing that we need to consider for a non-verbal or minimally-verbal child with autism is whether or not speaking is real option for them.  We can do this by asking the child to imitate basic speech tasks, like saying words or making sounds.  If the child is able to say words or make sounds in order to get something that he or she really wants, then we can say that speaking is definitely the best way to go to help that child communicate with us.  Speech is always the first option and we would love for all of our students with autism to speak to us.  However, some children simply aren’t able to talk right now, but that doesn’t mean that we give up on them and don’t provide them with an alternative.  If speech isn’t a viable option for the child you’re working with, move on to step two:

Options for AAC Devices, Methods,

Once you’ve found what works, use these steps to teach it:

How to Help a Child Use AAC at Home or in the Classroom (Hint: It’s easier than you think!)

Click Here to Learn More about Teaching Following Directions

No-Prep Activities and Resources for Helping Non-Speaking Children Learn to Speak

Everything You Need to Trial AAC with a Child

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

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