Communication
Description of the video:
0:01hi I'm Amy Gaffney I'm an educational
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consultant and a speech-language
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pathologist with the Indiana Resource
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Center for Autism
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today I want to give you a few tips on
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working with your child to help increase
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their communication skills children
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learn communication from their parents
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and caregivers so what we communicate
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with our children is very important some
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ways to support communication are the
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following
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we want to gain our child's attention
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using favorite toys and activities if
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they're carrying around their favorite
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Disney characters you might come up and
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say oh hi Mickey how are you today or
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howdy partner when you see Woody you
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might offer if if your child is holding
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Mickey and Woody maybe you're going to
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offer Rex and say hey can I play can I
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join in
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what are we going to do today and see if
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they will respond in some way either by
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taking
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um Rex to add to their collection of the
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little toys or maybe say something back
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to you to answer a question being silly
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is also a really good way to get kids
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attention and to get them involved in
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talking while they're playing
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we want to point out people and things
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that we see throughout the day and make
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comments so that we're modeling for our
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children some things that we can say if
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we're eating oh something tastes sour or
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oh that was really crunchy mmm yum yum I
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like that if we're playing with a ball
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or we're shooting some hoops we're we
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can say great job or oh swish oh bummer
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maybe next time
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we use lots of gestures and we can be
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very animated well during play while
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we're outside taking a walk we can point
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to things and look at that and see if
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your child will look at you and look at
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what you're pointing at and then we can
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show them different things and we want
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to communicate how we feel about things
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that are around us
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talk about what you're doing if you are
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in the kitchen and you're making muffins
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and your child is helping you mix and
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stir the batter you can say mix mix mix
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mix the batter for our blueberry muffins
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mix mix and we want to emphasize those
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verbs and those action words we're
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mixing or maybe we want to emphasize
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those blueberries are yummy ah blueberry
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muffins yum yum
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we also want to listen and respond to
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when our child makes attempts to talk to
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us
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you want to make sure that you're giving
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your child good eye contact
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when we're talking with each other we
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naturally do some non non-verbal um body
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language so we nod our heads when we're
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talking we smile oh
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really tell me more
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hmm and we really want to get engaged in
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what they're talking to even if we're
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not quite sure what they're saying but
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they are really trying to communicate
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something with us we want to encourage
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that
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we can also play games with our kids
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some fun games that work on
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communication skills are what's in Ned's
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head you can you put your your hands in
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this big plush head and pull different
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things out you could say oh that feels
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soft or ooh that feels prickly that
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feels slimy yuck
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um another one of my favorites is pop-up
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pirate we push the little swords in and
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we wait for the pirate to pop up so
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there's a lot of anticipation so we're
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looking at each other looking to see
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what's going to happen
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is it gonna pop here he goes pop up and
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you put the sword in and you say oh
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bummer he didn't pop up or he popped
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um we can go fishing and you can talk
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about my turn your turn go fish I caught
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one I caught a red fish
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I caught a blue fish
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we know that many of our children with
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autism are visual Learners so we also
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want to include using pictures and
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offering choices to help them be able to
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communicate things to us so one of the
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ways that we can do this is by having
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some kind of a board and we can
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communicate choices like a snack time or
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you know what we want to tell the child
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you need to go get dressed it's time to
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get dressed
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maybe we want to give them some choices
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of you know do you want to watch TV or
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do you want to have snack now
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so those are different ways that we can
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use pictures to communicate with our
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children and it's a way that they can
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communicate back to us
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another thing that we can do to help
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really work on communication and
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comprehension skills for our kids
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because we want to make sure that they
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are understanding what we're
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communicating to them so we can do a
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first then schedule and I'll say first
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we're going to go to the park
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then we're going to go to Dairy Queen
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and get some ice cream and if I don't
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have a picture of Dairy Queen or some
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ice cream I can just draw it on a sticky
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note and put it on my card so first go
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to the park then go to Dairy Queen I
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might say when we get to Dairy Queen or
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when we get to our favorite ice cream
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place maybe it's Baskin Robbins and you
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want to say what flavor do you want
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you want to teach your child to either
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point to the flavor that they want give
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them a few choices or have them say you
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know chocolate vanilla strawberry
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whatever their favorite is maybe it's
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the Superman
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um so there's lots of different ways
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that we can communicate and teach
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communication to our children
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we want to be very interested and very
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excited about any op any attempts that
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they make to communicate with us because
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we want them to do with that more and
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more so making sure that we take the
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time to be very purposeful and think
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about are we giving them the attention
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that they need are we helping to support
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their communication and if they're not
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wanting to communicate with us very
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often how can we gain their attention
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how can we use some of their favorite
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things to maybe if you want to to play a
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little ball
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a little toss game with them you want to
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roll the ball over to them or you hand
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them the little paddle and then they'll
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look to you like why are you giving me
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this and then you can say
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couch couch
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and then see wait a second and offer
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them the ball and see if they will
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respond back and say catch or yes or
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let's play
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fun okay let's go
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um also using repetitive phrases like
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Ready Set Go
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and when we say that many times over and
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eventually all of a sudden if you listen
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real carefully sometimes we start
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hearing those little voices say go
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Ready Set
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and then we wait and they'll say it all
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by themselves go
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there's lots of fun ways that we can
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interact with our children and work on
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their back and forth communication
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skills I hope some of these tips are
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helpful to you and your family
Communication: Video Summary
Children learn communication from their parent. So, what you communicate with your child is very important. Here are some ways to support communication:
- Gaining child’s attention using favorite toys and activities.
- Point out people or things to your child and make a comment.
- Talk to your child about what you are doing. Repeat words and phrases, such as “Let’s mix, mix, mix the batter to make our blueberry muffins.”
- Listen and respond when your child tries to talk.
- Use a communication board or pictures to show your child how to communicate with others.
- Be very interested in what your child says so your child is excited to communicate with you.
- Play games to practice lots of words and phrases, such as "My turn."
- What's in Ned's Head - Can use lots of descriptive words
- Pop Up Pirate! - Use the repetitive word "Pop" or "Pop up!"
- A fishing game - Use the phrase "Go fish" to tell the person it's their turn to fish, say "I got one!" when you catch a fish
Communication Visual Supports
Picture routines can be made using Google images, photographs, or drawings.
Download/Print Pre-Made Communication Visual Supports
Articles to Learn More About Communication
If you would like to read more about communication, click on the links below:
- https://www.unicef.org/parenting/child-care/9-tips-for-better-communication
- https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/how-to-support-your-childs-communication-skills/
- https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/connecting-communicating/communicating/toddlers-talking
Examples of Communication Supports
Purchase "My Essential Needs" Flash Cards
Make choice boards with pictures of items for the child to request. Pictures can be used during play to request and comment about the activity or game.