For today’s post, I sat down with my friend Darlene Gore, a Speech Language Pathologist with over 40 years of experience to give you 7 Speech Therapy Tips to Help Non-Verbal Autistic Children. If you are the parent of a child with autism or other special needs with a verbal delay and you’re looking for legitimate tips on how to integrate Speech Therapy at home, this article is for you!
For years I worried about milestones my son Nathan was missing. I felt like there was a deadline for speech. I thought if he didn’t start speaking in sentences by age three we were doomed. I felt behind; depressed and frustrated. I reached out and researched everywhere to find help and hope, but unfortunately I came up short.
If you’ve been googling how to help my autistic child talk all day I feel you. I’ve been there. I want you to know there’s hope and no such thing as a deadline for speech development.
My son Nathan is six, and he’s still developing new language skills every day so do not ever think it’s too late. There’s no age limit. Don’t put a deadline or timeline on development. You’ll go insane if you do.
There’s no such thing as a one size fits all strategy when it comes to any therapy with autism because our autistic kids are unique. This is one of the more frustrating aspects of parenting a child on the spectrum because you never know what will work for your child until you try it. That being said, I’d like to offer you several speech therapy activities you can do at home with your child to improve his or her communication.
For today’s post, I asked Darlene Gore, a Speech Language Pathologist with over 40 years of experience, to give us her best 7 Speech Therapy Tips to Help Non-Verbal Autistic Children. 
EveryImitation
Imitation-actions like clapping hands or pushing a toy car back and forth involves your child’s ability to copy another’s actions, sounds, or facial expressions. As they grow, these imitation skills help children learn language, play skills, and how to interact socially. Typically developing children begin to learn imitation skills in infancy. Children with autism tend to have difficulty with imitation so we need to take extra steps to help them develop these skills.
Tips
Favorite Toy or Object | Using your child’s favorite toy or preferred object (my son went through a phase where he loved coat hangars) imitate him! Talk to your child about the object. Place it on your head and be silly and and ask him to do the same. This may take some time to build on-the important thing to remember here is to keep trying. Keep interacting. Don’t quit because he ignores you the first 50 times.
Be A Copy Cat | Watch your child play and then join in. Copy his actions & show great enthusiasm when you do.
Any sound your child makes during play, imitate him/her each time until your child begins to pay attention to your imitation of his sounds.
Remember Imitation of any kind vocal or gestures are essential to speech development!
PLAY
Playing with your child is one of the greatest things you can do to improve social skills and build language.
Using your child’s favorite toys,(Trucks, Balls, Blocks, Puppets, Animals)
Bombarding your child with sounds of that toy…….
“Roll Roll Roll”.. while rolling truck;
“Wuff Wuff Wuff”…with the dog;
“Meow” with the cat;
Do not expect any sounds from your child at this point; just hopefully make him aware that you are making noises while playing with certain toys.
After several short playing sessions with your child, focusing on play and sounds.
He may begin to utter noises while playing with a toy. If not, go back and repeat steps #1 and #2 above, and work through to # 4 until your child is making any sound playing with toy/toys.
Note: It does not necessarily have to sound like the sounds you are making with the toy.
Establish motivation once your child is successfully pairing any vocalization with a toy.
Some parents may prefer edible such as fruit loops, and some may prefer an item such as sticker…….it does not matter.
What IS important is that it’s what he likes…whatever motivates him.
Slowly begin to ask your child to imitate something you know he can do- like clap his hands or blow bubbles. Or gives you a toy you ask for, etc.
As soon as he responds correctly, give a reward.
Begin this process with the toy/sound play; any imitation child does of you playing and making sounds with toys, reward.
The ability to imitate is paramount to any speech/language treatment.
The six steps above may take months!
Every child is different!
Once imitation is established, it can be generalized to every activity during the day.
*We are not looking at speech intelligibility at this point……any vocalization is rewarded when it’s imitated.
The next step would be moving from favorite toys of the child to everyday objects he is familiar with….cup, toothbrush, bowl, comb, etc. Preferably one syllable items.
Place 2 objects in front of the child and ask him to hand you________.
Reward when he gives you correct object.
This way you know he hears right word for that object.
At this point, begin shaping imitation of the word…. helpful to work using a mirror.
The goal is for your child to imitate word using the correct initial sound of the word.
All of these exercises will take a great deal of patience on your end. If you’re able to get Speech Therapy for your child with autism or verbal delay then please make an appointment today! Many people get confused about speech therapy and feel like it’s a waste if their child is non-verbal, but that is simply not the case! A good speech therapist who’s trained to work with special needs kids can help develop communication in verbally delayed children.
If you are interested in getting more tips and advice on encouraging speech, please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Pinterest!
If you are looking for great developmental toys for special needs kids, check out the toy guide that Darlene and I put together in December. You’ll find all kinds of fabulous toys to engage your child!
I hope this collection of 7 Speech Therapy Tips to Help Non-Verbal Autistic Children has helped you! If it has, please share it on Pinterest!
For for more tips and information on parenting a child with autism, please follow my board, Autism.
