Presuming competence in non verbal kids with autism.

I wanted to do do a blog post on this topic for a long time. This topic is very close to my heart as I have first hand seen people making an assumption about my son's abilities as he is non-verbal. I want to tell everyone that even though most of our kids on the spectrum are nonverbal they can learn. and understand.

I have also seen first-hand well-meaning professionals speak about the kids in their presence. This is the worst thing someone can do as our kids are not in a position to defend themselves even though they understand everything.

We need to believe in our own children first so other people can follow suit. When Aarian was first diagnosed with autism we were so worried as to how we will be able to teach him letter sounds and reading. I was surprised one day when by accident I discovered my son was able to read. That was an eye-opening experience for me. I decided that day I was going to help my son to reach his maximum potential. Our kids cannot speak but they can think so it is our duty as parents to help them to reach their full potential.

There are a few things we can do to help our kids. The first thing is to speak to them as you would speak to any other child. Speak to them normally you never know how much information they are absorbing. When Aarian was growing up it seemed he was not listening to us but in reality, he was absorbing so much more. We need to avoid baby talk with our kids.

The next thing is we need to give our kids a way to communicate as an inability to communicate can lead to frustration and negative behaviors. My son to this day uses AAC speech-generating device to communicate. There are no prerequisites for AAC intervention. We need to believe our kids can learn to communicate when we provide them the means of communication whether it is PECS or high-end speech-generating devices. We as parents need to use the device and model it for them so the kids can learn to use their communication devices. We need to speak their language which is AAC.

Most of our kids on the spectrum work on basic foundational skills for a long time. We must expose our kids to age-appropriate activities to practice these concepts. We should automatically not assume the activities might be challenging for them. We need to expose them to these activities. Modifications can always be made for them if things get harder at first. This is my personal experience with my son. I had to expose him to different activities to realize he was able to do so much more.

Most of the kids on the spectrum who are non-verbal have lots of challenges with expressive language. In these situations, most of the work we need to do with our kids is based on receptive language and their understanding of the particular concepts.  Try to use their communication devices while working on these concepts.

In conclusion, I want to emphasize we as parents need to believe in our kids and challenge them.They will surprise you in a way you never expected. I hope I have given you a few ideas to help you. if you have any other ideas do comment and let me know.







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