How can Speech Therapy help my Child with Autism?

We often hear from parents of children with ASD that their paediatrician or doctor suggested they should see a speech pathologist, but for many families they aren’t sure why – asking us what can a speech therapist do to help their child with Autism?

Speech pathologists (also known as Speech Therapists or Speech Language Pathologists) support children and adults across many different areas of communication and feeding/eating skills. The diverse needs of children with Autism lead to a whole range of supports that we offer, ranging from very early play and interaction skills, to social skills for teens, and supporting kids who are very fussy eaters to increase their range of foods that they eat.

Read on for some of the ways that Speech Therapists can help children with Autism to develop and thrive.

Children need to learn to interact, play, and share messages with other people before they can effectively learn to talk. Very often we work with children and families to develop a child’s interest and skills for sharing time and activities with their parents or carers in a fun way. Fun, back-and-forth interactions can be a really strong starting point to build social and communication skills, and can be considered an early type of conversation

How you can help at home: Help your child learn to use YOU as the fun toy! Games like peek-a-boo, spinning your child around or throwing them in the air are great ways to show your child that including you in the play is the fun part! Once you and your child get into a play routine, you can then pause at an exciting point in the game and wait for your child to tell/show you they want to continue.

Many children with ASD have trouble developing play skills, and can gravitate towards repetitive kinds of playing. There is a lot of research that shows a connection between imaginative play skills and social skills, and we often work with children to help them learn and expand their play routines including building on pretend play or imaginative play.

How you can help at home: Join in with your child’s play. Start with copying their actions, and add something new. This helps to show your child a new step they can use when they play.

Speech therapists help children to develop their skills for using language. This includes skills like learning new words, using longer phrases and sentences, and telling or writing stories with a logical sequence of events.

For non-verbal children, or children who have not yet started saying words, speech therapists help children share their messages in other ways, including using gestures or simple sign language (Key Word Sign), eye contact, visuals (pictures), communication boards, and high-tech Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices and apps, which allow someone to share a message by tapping buttons.

How you can help at home: Give your child a reason to communicate with you. Put a favourite toy out of your child’s reach or in a see-through jar, so they have to show or tell you they want the toy. Depending on your child’s stage and skills, they might take you by the hand to the toy, point at it, give you eye contact, make a sound, say a word, or use a phrase to request the toy.

Receptive Language skills (listening and reading/comprehension)

Many children with ASD have difficulty understanding language for a number of reasons. Some have challenges with tuning in and focusing on visual or spoken messages, from a sensory perspective. e.g. some children find it visually intense to look at other people’s faces, so they can miss gestures, head shakes and facial expressions that would help them understand the spoken words. Sometimes children find it hard to filter sounds – they may be distracted by background noises, and have trouble focusing on the sounds of someone talking.

For children who have ASD with stronger language skills, they can have difficulty understanding non-literal language when they listen or read. Jokes, puns, and idioms can all be confusing and challenging for a child with ASD. All these factors can combine with lower ‘core’ language skills, and can contribute to difficulty in comprehension. Speech therapists can help children develop their skills for understanding language, so that they can process and make sense of what they read and hear in their everyday life.

How you can help at home: Make it visual! When you talk to your child, a message can get lost so quickly. If you add something visual to your message, it gives your child another way to understand you that lasts longer, and also helps them understand the words you say next time. How can you make things visual? Use your hands a body – point, show objects, make gestures. You can use your mobile phone to show photos of a recent day out, while you talk to your child about the experience.

One of the features of Autism Spectrum Disorder is difficulty with social communication. Every child is different and the way that they show these skills and difficulties can range from having no interactive skills, to needing a bit of help interpreting complex social scenarios. As speech therapists, we work with a lot of children and families to teach social skills, helping children to learn and practice how to communicate with other children and adults in appropriate and functional ways. Through programs like the Secret Agent Society (SAS) social skills groups and the Hanen TalkAbility parent training program, we support children to make friends, get better at playing games with others, and to ‘tune-in’ to others’ thoughts, feelings and wishes,

How you can help at home: If your child needs help playing well with other children, you can help by setting up a playdate. You can plan ahead with your child, thinking about what you can play (What would the other child like to play?) and even role play to practice the friendly things your child can say when the playdate starts. Coach your child to play! Once the children are playing together, step in to join in and help them get started, and be ready to step out of the play when it’s going well. Stay nearby in case the kids need your help to keep a game going, or move on to a new activity.

All behaviour is a kind of communication. When children have challenging behaviours, there are reasons behind these behaviours and Speech Therapists are well-equipped to help support, understand and improve children’s behaviour by looking at why that behaviour is happening. Once we understand why a child is using a particular behaviour, we support children using a ‘positive behaviour support’ framework.

Speech therapists can teach children a new way to communicate something that is better than the behaviour they used before. For example, a child who swipes food or toys off the table is sending a message ‘I’m finished’ or ‘I don’t like that’. We can help children and families find new ways for the child to communicate this message, e.g. teach them to say “no” and then the food is taken away quickly, or use the Key Word Sign (simple sign language) for ‘finished’ and the toy gets removed straight away.

How you can help at home: If your child has a behaviour that is tricky, try to understand why it’s happening – what happened just before they do the behaviour? What usually happens just after they do the behaviour? This will help you work out what the purpose, or the communicative reason is. Once you know what your child is trying to tell you, you can help them find a new, easy way to send you the same message.

Many children with ASD have sensory sensitivities, and often this can be linked to a child being a fussy eater. Speech Therapists have a really important role in helping develop feeding skills, including assessing a child’s preferences and physical skills for eating to make sure that recommendations are safe and children are ready to learn new eating skills or try new foods. At Clear Communicators Speech Therapy we use a positive, caring approach to developing feeding skills based on the SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) approach to feeding therapy.

How you can help at home: We understand that mealtimes can be stressful for parents, especially when their children are extra fussy eaters. One of the most powerful ways you can help your child learn and explore new foods is to help them feel safe by setting a calm and relaxed mealtime atmosphere. Join in with your child to try new foods, and celebrate tiny steps as huge wins. If your child doesn’t like eating orange foods, but one day they are happy for mashed sweet potato to sit on their plate, that’s something to celebrate! If your child doesn’t nornally eat cheese but one day holds and smells cheese, that is something to celebrate! Small, positive steps in exploring food will help your child feel safe to try new steps and new foods. Have fun and get messy!