3 Invisible Skills Critical for Good Communication

One common question I get about using visual strategies involves prerequisites for success. People want to know if there are some skills to teach before using visual supports with students.

My answer to that is NO. You can start today to support your communication with visual cues and visual tools.

Just remember there are many kinds of visual supports
Objects are visual tools. Your body can be used to get attention and communicate information. So, getting in a child's visual field and holding up his coat so he can put his arms in is a great way to use visual cues and supports.

Starting with your own body and objects in the environment can be a very appropriate beginning.

Remember . . . the goal is effective communication
Visual strategies are tools used to improve communication. But for really successful communication, students need to establish a strong social connection with others. Challenges in social relationships are a core deficit in ASD.

Three essential (but invisible) foundation skills for a
social connection
Here are three important skills. They are called "invisible" because they are the kinds of things we don't think about consciously. We don't specifically teach them. They develop in most young children naturally through our typical interactions with them. But children with ASD may not develop them in the same way other children do.

1. Establishing Attention
These students are known for not having good eye contact. They don't respond consistently when people talk to them. Some of them live in a "world of their own," seemingly oblivious to those around them. Establishing attention does not mean staring at someone's eyeballs. It does mean acknowledging a person's presence.

2. Turn Taking
Social interaction requires each person to take a turn. Your turn means you are responding to the other person. Turn taking doesn't mean playing board games. A turn can be as simple as establishing eye contact when someone calls your name. Or imitating a gesture. Or it can be as complex as responding to a request or making a verbal comment about something that is happening.

3. Staying Power
This one is REALLY important. Does the student stay
"connected" with others long enough for real communication to occur? Sometimes students will establish attention or take a turn, but they do it quickly and then flee . . . either mentally or physically. The goal is to get them to stay involved with another person for increasing amounts of time.

Put them all together
I can have the most wonderful, fantastic visual tool or picture card, but if the student won't look or pay attention or stay connected with me, that visual tool won't be very effective.

When the student pays attention to me and connects
for minutes rather than fleeting seconds, more effective communication can occur.

So these are three skills to work on
There are lots of ways to do it. One of my favorites is through play. Not tea party play, but rough house play. Think of what you do with very young children. The kind of play that creates giggles & laughs. Peek-a-boo with a bath towel over your head type stuff. The silly kind of play you do when you are on your hands and knees on the floor.

Pay attention to these essential foundation skills
Spending time building these invisible skills will teach students to relate to others more effectively. They CAN learn these skills. The end result will be a better response to the visual tools you develop for supporting communication.

Copyright © 2008 Linda Hodgdon

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