How to Adapt Communication with Children and Young People

When communicating with a child or young adult with communication differentiations the key factor is to remain patient and calm at all times. For example a deaf child may need extra time to respond so do not try and rush the individual into saying what they need to say or finish off their sentence for them. They may also need to use or find resources to talk back to you. A child or a young adult with English being their second language may need that additional time to translate in their head what you have just asked/said to them. A child or young adult with asperger’s syndrome or autism may have trouble understanding language in context and may take things ‘literally’ They may have little or no eye contact when conversing with another individual so will not pick up on body language or facial expressions which are all an integral part of communication.

When working with my pupil who has autism whenever I ask him a question for which I am expecting a response to I give him that additional time to answer me by ‘singing’ a little tune in my head – ‘one, two, three, four now go back and count some more’ before I ask him the question again if he has not responded the first time. This little ditty was told to me by the speech and language therapist that works alongside children and young adults with communication difficulties and is one of many intervention programmes designed to help assist individuals with such needs.