Tips on helping autistic children to communicate

Communication tips for autistic children

Perhaps the most recognizable difference between a child diagnosed with autism and those who are not autistic, is the inability to communicate by generally accepted verbal means with other people. Often it is not because the child does not want to communicate, but that his or her verbal communication skills develop at a much slower pace than others and therefore cause problems and misunderstandings.

Psychologist Adriana S. Ginanjar said that unlike an autistic child, non-autistic children begin to recognize words at the age of 10 months, and usually utter their first word by the time they reach the age of 12 months.

The non-autistic child's ability to speak would continue improving along with age so that between 16 months and 24 months, the child's vocabulary would have increased from 50 words to 400 words, she said.

However, an autistic child's ability to communicate is often so slow that sometimes they do not utter their first wordlike sounds until three years old.

On the other hand, autistic children with the ability to speak audibly, are sometimes unable to comprehend and reason about what they are saying, according to current scientific theory.

"And because they lack (some) skills, autistic children often talk out of context," Adriana said in a workshop on how to increase autistic children's communications abilities here.

Therefore, it is more important to teach these children to understand language and the ability to conduct two-way communication, rather than to teach them mere words.

There are other ways to communicate feelings to other people than using words, such as using facial expressions, gestures, changing voice tones, or using flashcards with pictures or writing. These can also be taught to an autistic child who has difficulty expressing themselves through generally accepted verbal means.

"Usually autistic children have an excellent visual ability. It is easier for them to remember and learn using pictures or writing as aids," Adriana added, explaining that this was caused by their limited ability to store auditory stimuli in the brain.

To teach these children to communicate with their surroundings, many special schools have opened both in Jakarta and outside Jakarta, such as the Mandiga school for autistic children in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, and the Fajar Nugroho school in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

Another psychologist at the workshop, Dyah Puspita, said that various visual aids could be used to help autistic children convey their feeling, such as three dimensional objects, a symbol of various objects, photographs, pictures, and writings.

"Make sure that the visual aids are easy for the children, keeping in mind the child's age and ability," she said to the mothers and educators attending the workshop.

The first step towards teaching verbal communication skills to autistic children is to teach the understanding of words by matching an object with an identical object, with a similar object, with a picture, and gradually to match an object with a symbol.

As with all children, autistic children need time to absorb and understand what is being taught, but unlike many children, it may take longer for autistic children.

The second step in understanding is to teach by identification or picking up or touching objects or flashcards according to what the teacher says.

In the next step, the child is taught about choices, by teaching an autistic child to point to two more things to choose from. Then the last step in understanding, is to teach the child to understand the meaning of yes and no, by teaching the child to nod or shake his or her head indicating preference for a certain thing that the teacher offers.

When the autistic child has mastered the understanding phase, he is taught to express himself. The lessons prepared in this stage are aimed at gradually allowing the child to describe pictures, conduct two-way communication, ask and answer questions, and explain about experiences.

"Again all the steps should be taught gradually and lots of time should be given for absorption and understanding," Dyah said.

--Tantri Yuliandini