Wondering how to teach an autistic child to speak? I have been working with children on the autism spectrum for 20 years, as a therapist and autism center owner. These are my best tips for how to teach an autistic child to speak. Try one or use them all. Every child is different and you will need to adapt any program based on your child or student’s specific needs. Make sure you download the “How to Teach an Autistic Child to Speak” freebie list I made for you to get the most out of this post. Looking for autism activities that teach language skills? Get your copy of the Autism Activities Workbook Bundle.
How to Teach an Autistic Child to Speak
After 20 years working with children with autism, these are my best tips to work on verbal communication skills.
Teach Adapted Sign Language
Adapted sign language is one of the most efficient learning tools for teaching nonverbal, and partially verbal, autistic learners to speak.
The goal of teaching adapted sign language is not to replace verbal language, but to serve as a visual stepping stone towards verbal language.
Adapted sign language offers a visual way of learning language which serves as an important preliminary step to verbal language.
Within a couple of hours of teaching adapted sign language, you can open up the lines of communication with an autistic individual, even if you haven’t been able to communicate with them fluidly before.
Use Adapted Books
Simple Adapted Books are a fantastic learning tool that will help your autistic learner understand and use simple words.
Adapted Books are one of my favorite tools in my autism toolkit for teaching children on the autism spectrum to speak.
They are a fun, educational and simple way to teach new vocabulary and even simple sentences.
When I make Adapted Books, I use real life photos (rather than pictograms or other types of drawings) to make the books as concrete, and easy-to-use, as possible.
Autistic learners already struggle enough to learn to speak, we don’t want to make it even harder for them by using abstract, line drawings to teach them language.
Click here to get your copy of the Autism Adapted Books Bundle!
Teach Pointing
Pointing is a crucial prerequisite skill to verbal speech. It is essential for your child or students to learn to point in order to learn to communicate verbally.
My favorite way to teach pointing, is with a simple pointing book. You can easily make one at home and start using it right away.
Teach Speech with I Spy Activities
I Spy! activities are so much fun. I love using them throughout the year to teach new vocabulary and language skills to my autistic students.
If you want to incorporate them into your programs too, get your copy of the I Spy! Bundle (18 printable I Spy! activities for autistic learners).
Use Visual Support
Autistic individuals generally benefit from visual support. Particularly if a child with autism is unable to understand complex verbal language, visual support can help!
Visual support comes in many forms. Some simple visual support you can set up immediately are a first then visual schedule and a simple visual schedule for kids with autism.
Visual support is calming, reduces confusion and makes it easier for autistic individuals to understand language and follow instructions.
Create a Communication Binder
Another communication-building tool I have used throughout my years as a therapist for children with autism, if the Communication Binder.
A Communication Binder is a simple binder filled with small photos that your child or students can use to communicate. It is similar to the PECS system, but used real world photos that have specific meaning to the child, making it more meaningful, easier to use and less abstract than a PECS binder.
Learn to create a Communication Binder, step-by-step, here!
Use simple sentences
It is important that autistic individuals hear simple, clear, concise, verbal language.
If we are using complex, overly descriptive sentences with our learners, our language becomes noise.
We need to make sure that we are speaking to our learners in a way that is clear and easy for them to comprehend.
Make sure you are using simple, direct, clear sentences. Avoid vague, abstract, overly descriptive language.
When giving an instruction, make sure it is clear.
Say “show me the car” rather than “go pick up the toy car and show it me, honey”.
Both sentences are asking for the same thing, but the second sentence uses too many words, several of them unnecessary to get the point across.
One your autistic child or students are much more comfortable with language, it will be easier for them to dissect the meaning from longer sentences that use more superfluous words, but to get started, it is essential to create a situation in which your child or students can master the essentials of speech and language.
Teach simple imitation skills
Imitation skills are a prerequisite skill for learning to speak.
Children typically learn naturally from their environments and pick up language, learning to speak naturally through interacting with others and copying them.
Autistic children have a much hard time learning to speak from their environments.
Without specific skills training, they probably won’t learn verbal speech on their own.
It is is not enough just to put them in social environments with other children and hope that they will learn to speak.
As with pretty much all skills we teach autistic learners, it is important to break down larger goals into a series of smaller goals.
Teaching imitation skills is one of the smaller goals that is essential on the way to learning to speak.
Some fun ways to teach imitation skills are playing fun hand games, I clap, then you clap, I put my hands up in the air, you put your hands up in the air, etc.
Teach with Sensory Bins
Autistic learners tend to love sensory activities. I always love to make learning more fun by using sensory activities to teach new skills as much as possible.
The best way to incorporate sensory fun into learning? Sensory boxes and bins, of course!
This is my complete list of sensory boxes for kids with autism that I love to make and use in my learning programs, again and again!
These are my favorite sensory activities for autism.
How to Teach an Autistic Child to Speak with Sensory Bins
How to Teach an Autistic Child to Speak with Autism Activities
The key to teaching an autistic child to speak is creating and fun and enriching educational environment that fosters learning, whether that is at home, at school, in a private practice, or a combination of all three.
Also, take a look at my round-up of the best autism activties.
Teach with Play Dough Mats
Play dough mats are a great tool for teaching children with autism to speak.
They offer a fun approach to teaching language skills.
How to teach an autistic child to speak using play dough mats
- Dinosaur Play Dough Mats
- Zoo Animals Play Dough Mats
- Sensory Communication Workbook
- Winter Play Dough Mats
Have patience
Difficulty learning verbal language is central to any autism diagnosis, so have patience with your child or students as they do the work to learn to speak.
It often takes a lot of repetition to teach an autistic child language. You will need to work on new words and sentences using a variety of different types of activities and it is bound to take some time.
Have patience. The results will be more than worth the wait!
Use Sensory Circuits
Again, incorporating sensory fun into any learning activity, makes it better, in my opinon.
A favorite activity I go back to time and time again with my autistic learners is sensory circuits.
You can make a variety of sensory circuits and incorporate teaching communication skills into the sensory circuits.
More Resources to Teach an Autistic Child to Speak
This collection of autism activities will help you teach your child or students to speak.
More Autism Resources
- The Successful Interaction with a Child with Autism Course – learn to better understand your autistic child or students with this complete course.
- Autism Activities Workbook Bundle – build communication skills, fine motor skills, sensory play skills and daily living skills, while helping your child or students to successfully manage any difficult behaviors, with these fun, educational, printable activities.
- Autism Activities Vault – your collection of 420+ autism activities for the entire school year.
- Sensory Communication Workbook – Build communication skills with simple sensory activities.
- How to Make a Communication Binder Guide & Workbook – Learn how to create a Communication Binder for your child or student with autism using real photos. Follow my expert guide to learn how to use it to increase communication skills.
- Autism Adapted Books Bundle – build communication skills with my collection of printable adapted books for autistic learners.
- Autism Social Stories Bundle – a collection of printable social stories to help your little learners work on their social skills.
- Zoo Animals Play Dough Mats Bundle – use these printable play dough mat to work on the names of the animals, build language skills, and increase fine motor strength and precision in a fun, sensory way!
- Autism Behavior Course – understand your students’ or child’s difficult behaviors that are getting in the way of learning and help your learners work through them in a positive and respectful way.
How to teach an autistic child to speak
I hope you find these tips and tools valuable for teaching language to your child or students.
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