Hi Icommunicate,

I have an autistic boy in my special needs class who is non-verbal. He is 9 years old and a few years ago he did actually produce a few recognisable words, but now he just has a few vocalisations. What can we do to try and develop his speech skills again?

Cheers Dave

Hi Dave,

Good question. My first thought would be to focus on a functional form of communication, such as PECS (picture exchange), before focussing on speech. I have been in the situation before where I had limited time and resources to spend with an autistic child and the school focus was on developing speech when the child had no other form of communication.

The child needs to learn about communicating and what it means. He needs to know how to initiate, request, and how to use communication as a tool. Therefore, just trying to teach him some words, may not fulfil a goal of functional communication.

PECS has been found to have a secondary effect with some children by naturally increasing there use of speech.

If the child already has a functional system of communication, then there is no harm in focussing on some speech, but not at detriment to other important activities. I suppose I may sound a little sceptical because I am not sure if a 9 year old autistic boy who has never really spoken is suddenly going to develop a system of speech. However, this is just my experience and there may be other professionals out there who could tell me otherwise.

If I was going to try and facilitate the child to speak some words, I might start with some simple symbolic sounds (e.g. "baaa" for sheep or "eeee" for mouse) using pictures and lotto games. These sounds are easy to produce. I would also get the child to focus on your mouth movement when you do it, even touching your face to feel the movement. Encourage the child to look into a mirror when they try and articulate the sounds.

If the child is able to produce some symbolic sounds, try and develop this into a handful of commonly used words. Choose 2 or 3 words to start with and always model the words to the child whenever the opportunity arises, and use a visual to back this up.

The success of any therapy of this kind will depend on the ability of the child, their motivation to communicate, and the consistency of approach from those around the child.

To recap, always look for a simple and functional form of communication in the first instance so the child can express their basic needs.

Hope that help Dave, let me know if you have any more questions.

Regards Johan

I was wondering how I can get PECS program for my four year old son. He is verbal but he does not understand concepts and when I'm trying to teach him or reason with him it is hard because he is so focused on what he wants or wants to do and I can't get through to him what I'm trying to explain how he can earn it or explain he can't have it right at that moment.