Developing Communication skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: what can parents do?

1
Developing Communication skills in children with
Autism Spectrum Disorders what can parents do?

• Rachel Taylor-Notley
• Speech Pathologist
• Early Start Speech Pathology

2
Overview of DIR/Floortime theory and practice
info resources

• Dr Stanley Greenspan (Child Psych.) Serena
  Wider (OT)
• Reading The child with Special needs, Engaging
  Autism, ICDL clinical guidelines
• DVDs/ Videos The Play Project Dr. Solomon,
  The Floortime training DVD series of 3 DVDs
  www.floortime.org (ICDL website view intro
  video 50 mins Dr Greenspan and Serena Wider,
  clinical guidelines)
• Youtube.com (search DIR/ Floortime or view the
  floortime channel on youtube)

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Floortime

• DIR model in practice
• Used in Rx sessions and parents trained to
  implement regularly in the home environment (20
  hours best practice)
• Follow childs natural interests
• Therapy tailored to childs sensory profile
• Therapy tailored to childs current developmental
  level
• Differs greatly from traditional and behavioural
  approaches
• DIR is a way of thinking and addressing every
  childs unique profile in regards to sensory
  motor, auditory visuo-spatial processing,
  oro-motor skills, language cognitive skills

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Example goals possible strategies

• GOAL Develop and use single words
• Strategies
• Comprehension comes 1st (although ASD children
  will often have expressive language skills higher
  than comprehension. This means they can say words
  they do not understand or not fully understand)
• Develop oro-motor skills, speech and non-speech
  imitation skills
• What is the purpose of the words you are
  teaching? focus on words that will be
  meaningful for the child

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• Build foundation skills for comprehension of
  words such as-
• Joint attention, self-regulation, visual
  processing (can they understand what they see)
• referencing (use visuals to help child understand
  your point of reference eg. Show pic of ball
  while saying showing a ball)
• Consider processing limitations reduce speech
  rate, vary pitch/volume, slow down movements
  (visual processing), may need to use non-speech
  sounds at first to engage the child

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• GOAL reduce echolalia
• Strategies-
• Work at the childs true comprehension level
• The child may recite whole TV shows but only
  understand one or two words in isolation
• Use strategies to engage the child eg. Follow
  childs interests, be the most interesting toy in
  the room (see handout getting started with
  floortime for more ideas on engaging the child)
• Dont overload the child with auditory or other
  sensory information
• Give the child enough time to respond or the
  child will rely on prompting or imitation

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Auditory Processing considerations

• Best to use key words only before introducing
  grammar
• If comprehension very poor then focus on affect,
  gesture, and non-speech sounds before introducing
  words into the equation
• Slowed speech rate and increased pause time
  between words can help
• Change pitch/ introduce melody to help child tune
  in to speech

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DIR/Floortime building relationships the r in
DIR. DIR approach aims to -

• Help parents understand and accept their child as
  a unique individual
• Help the parent understand the basis of their
  childs bizarre behaviours
• Help the parent fall in love, interact, and
  play with their child and perhaps for the first
  time get a response or acknowledgement from their
  child
• Empower parents with knowledge and strategies to
  help their child on a daily basis.

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• Further handouts attached-
• Getting started with floortime
• Parent guide to floortime
• Dealing with meltdowns
• Free visuals available-
• www.visualaidesforlearning.com
• www.dotolearn.com
• Ready made photo visual packs for purchase
• www.seeandspeak.com.au

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Thank you Questions
For Further information or advice contact Rachel
Taylor-Notley (Early Start Speech Pathology) on
Ph. 49555415 (Wallsend Maitland clinics)
earlyspeechpathology_at_live.com.au , website
www.greatspeech.com.au