The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Communication is hard. It requires many developmental pre-requisites. Traditionally we address communication from a deficit model, targeting only the abilities that the student is not demonstrating. This session will challenge the deficit approach and instead provide a model of opportunity creation. Participants will learn simple, effective strategies to improve communication. The purpose of this session is to highlight the importance of reciprocal communication in an individual’s overall development and provide participants with specific strategies for creating the space necessary to encourage independent contributions from their students.  Traditional prompting methods often lead to students becoming dependent on these prompts and communicating in an artificial “response only” manner.  Additionally, communication becomes a trained behavior versus the dynamic exchange observed with typically developing students.   However, targeting adjustments to one’s own communication efforts will have an important impact on a student’s communication.  Improvements in overall engagement, active participation, and negative behaviors.will also be observed with mindful implementation of the communication strategies targeted.     The session is appropriate for teachers and all support professionals (and parents!) working with students with communication challenges.  Strategies will target nonverbal and low verbal students as well as students who use their communication abilities primarily to request and/or respond to direct prompts.  The presenters will lead discussion using handouts and video demonstration.

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