ABSTRACT

Margery Rappaport (1996) suggests the following approaches for language development with the pre-verbal child, the child beginning to use words and the child using creative multi-word utterances.

Minimise direct questions

Adults often think that language and communication can be developed by asking lots of ‘Wh' questions of the type:

What is this?

Where are you going? What are you doing?

What do you call this?

Quill (1997) notes:

There is a tendency for adults to control interactions with language-impaired children through language that focuses the child's attention then asks questions or commands the child to do something. Given that the purpose of conversation is to share information, it is important to use language that focuses on what is happening at the moment.

Although you can't and won't want to eliminate these questions entirely, they are overused at the expense of the following alternative strategies.

Commenting

Follow the child's lead, watch what he or she is doing and then comment upon it. Provide a narrative of what is happening that might represent the child's own internal dialogue. Comment upon your own parallel actions. For a more able child you may want to include interpretations of feelings and thoughts, intent and perspective (Quill).

Wait and signal in a communicative exchange

After an adult has spoken he or she waits and communicates non-verbally that a response is expected from the child by looking expectantly, that is, with eye contact established, lips are moved slightly apart, eyebrows are raised and the head and body are oriented towards the child.

Some children with autism do find eye contact physically painful (as noted by Grandin (1995) and Williams (1997)) and may also object to the intrusion on their personal space, in which case joint attention can be focused upon some common object or visual prompt (see the section on visual strategies).

Set up communicative situations

This can be done by avoiding the anticipation of the child's every need and being on the look out for conversational opportunities in everyday events. The learner then has to communicate to get what they want. For example, put the child's favourite videos or toys out of reach but in view so the child has to point or use a name to get what they want.

Give them their usual breakfast but miss out a vital element then look expectantly at them!

For example, put out the cereal without the spoon.

Use abundant gesture and facial expression

Exaggerate your tone of voice and facial expression to get the message across. However, be wary of the child's ability to mimic without understanding so that the child's communication becomes theatrical and inappropriate.

For example:

‘Look, the ketchup bottle top is stuck!’

Exaggerated twisting of bottle top with suitable facial contortions.

‘It is stuck!’

Modelling

Rather than correcting mistakes appropriate phrases and sentences are suggested for the learner. This helps you to focus on what the child is trying to communicate rather than how she is communicating.

Reduction

Early years teachers were sometimes exhorted to ‘bathe the child in language' by using lots of spoken language. Unfortunately, this indiscriminate use of a cheap resource meant that many children with speech and language difficulties ended up confused and frustrated. They were not bathing, they were drowning! When commenting, responding or modelling language simplify what you say. Reduce the complexity to increase the clarity of what you mean so that it is at the level of the child. For example, if the child is not yet speaking then speak in one word utterances as much as possible.

Hodgon (1995) suggests that reducing the amount of language used with learners with speech and language difficulties will reduce the complexity of their auditory environment. She suggests the reduction of language to key phrases which are simple but grammatical and then pairing them with visual prompts (see below) when appropriate.

For example,

‘Sit on the carpet'

becomes

‘Sit';

‘Go to the cloakroom and get your lunch box'

becomes

‘Get your lunch'.

It may be tempting to use telegraphic or ‘pidgin' English but the purpose is to model the reduction of language that developmentally typical children may use.

Use exaggerated intonation, volume and rate of speech

This will help the learner to attend to what is being said and is why songs and nursery rhymes are so often used for stimulating early language development – because they are repetitive and rhythmical. However, some children will respond best to a voice that is calm, slow and highly predictable.

Eye contact and direction of gaze

For more accomplished communicators, the use of gaze can help us to take it in turns in conversation and to establish joint attention. As stated above, forced eye contact may be extremely uncomfortable for some children, so hectoring commands such as ‘look at me' from an adult may not encourage the child to use eye contact and gaze appropriately. For example, the child who mechanically looks someone straight in the eye when engaged in conversation is likely to get into trouble very quickly. ‘Establishing joint attention on an object or action is more important than maintaining a vacuous eye gaze' (Quill).

There is nothing to stop you moving your head close to the action or object or the other way round so that eye contact occurs ‘naturally'.

Reinforcement or responsiveness

Do not ignore attempts to communicate, whatever form they take. They may be verbal or non-verbal.

A response will increase the child's efforts to communicate.