Autism Outreach for Schools

Vanessa's Blog - July: Communication

Communication differences, or difficulties are one of the key areas that define Autistic Spectrum conditions. As we are talking about a spectrum, it will affect different people in very different ways. Some may not be able to use verbal communication (known as non-verbal) and may need to learn to use an alternative method, like picture exchange, electronic aids or signing. Others may have fantastic verbal skills and a great vocabulary, but struggle more with the social aspects of communication. But why is this such a tricky area for some any people? Have a look below at what is involved in a simple conversation.

What is in involved in communicating successfully?

  1. Have an idea of something to say and the social intent to share it with another person
  2. Check out the social environment:
  • Is this person listening to me?
  • Are they a safe person to talk to?
  • Is my idea something that will make them happy/sad/angry?
  • Do I need to adjust the way I speak to this person to make it more formal/less formal/simple words/complex words?
  • Is this the right time and place to be talking?
  • Do I feel brave and resilient enough to have a go at expressing myself?
  1. Semantics - choose the right words to say what I mean
  2. Syntax – choose the right sentence structure/grammar to make my meaning clear
  3. Phonology –choose the right sounds to make these words
  4. Articulate sounds – use tongue, mouth, jaw to make the right shape for these sounds
  5. Produce voice – use enough air to make a sound and control volume
  6. Pragmatics - use the right tone of voice and body language to accompany the speech and give extra information to the listener

What about being on the other side of this? What is involved in receiving communication?

  1. Be alert and realise that someone is speaking to me
  2. Look and attend for the whole sentence
  3. Interpret the non-verbal communication
  4. Hear the sounds
  5. Auditory memory – hold the sounds in my head long enough to decode them
  6. Semantics – understand the words
  7. Syntax – understand how the sentence structure/grammar changes the meaning of these words
  8. Put together the whole meaning, literal and non-literal and how it fits into the social context;
  • Is this person speaking just to me, or to lots of people
  • Was it a joke, or sarcasm?
  • How does this related to what has been said previously?
  • Is this person happy/sad/angry? Are they being kind/unkind to me?
  • Was it a question I should answer?
  • Should I keep the conversation going, or how can I end it?

 

There is so much going on, it is a wonder any of us can communicate effectively at all! People with autism can have difficulties at any, or many of these stages. Some will require support from a Speech and Language Therapist, but there all also lots of things that we can do to help at home and in school. Here are our top five tips;

  • 1.The most important thing is to support communication with visual information as much as possible. People with autism are better visual learners, so they will take on board this information more easily and can check back easily if they have forgotten. Strategies like PECS and Colourful Semantics make communication very visual
  • 2. Reduce your language – we often want to provide a language rich environment for children with speech difficulties, but for a child with Autism, that just means giving them more to process. Keep it simple and show a visual instead!
  • 3. Give children a reason to communicate – if we give them everything they need, or speak for them, they will learn to be reliant on adults
  • 4. For children who are struggling more with the social side of language be a good role model! ‘Think out loud’, so that they can see your reasoning and draw out Comic Strip Conversations, so that they can begin to understand more about the social world. Give them visual prompts to support the information that we assume ‘everyone knows’ like being quiet in the library and not talking to the head teacher during assembly.
  • 5. If you are thinking this blog does not apply to your child/the child you work with, as their language is great, stop and think – can they ‘chit chat’? If the answer is no, then they need your help! Promote social language by conducting surveys (who is your favourite super hero), using intensive Interaction, playing games (board games are great, especially guess who) and role-play.

There are lot of ideas about support communication in our resources section here: http://freemantlesoutreach.org.uk/Resources/Communication/

You may also want to look at resources around social skills here:

http://freemantlesoutreach.org.uk/Resources/Social-and-Emotional/

There are also lots of good resources for speech and language on www.talkingpoint.org.uk/

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