What can you do at home to promote social communication?
Parents are often their child’s first teacher. Children’s communication skills grow and develop rapidly during the first few years of life. Here are a few things you can do at home to increase your child’s communication skills!
References:
- Establish consistent routines: Routines are important to utilize because the child will begin to anticipate what is coming next. An example of a consistent routine is reading a story before bedtime.
- Follow the child’s lead: This technique involves allowing the child to make a choice on which toy, game, or activity they want to participate in. The parents will then also participate in the selected activity to interact with their child.
- Imitate your child: Imitate a child’s vocalizations during play activities. Expand those utterances by adding more information. For example, if a child says, “Big ball”, a parent could say, “That’s a big red ball!” It provides the child with more vocabulary words to use when communicating.
- Provide Communication temptations: Communication temptations “tempt” the child into communicating. An example would be using a clear container with a lid that has exciting toys inside. If the child wants to play with the toys, they will need to have help taking the lid off first. A parent could tempt their child into communicating by saying, “Tell me ‘help please’”. Giving your child toys that require you to help them are also a good idea to use during play. An example of these kind of toys would be wind-up toys, bubbles, and tops.
References:
- Ingersoll, B., & Dvortcsak, A. (2010). Teaching social communication to children with autism (a manual for parents and a practitioner’s guide to parent training). New York City, NY: The Guilford Press.