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In “Improving Requesting” you will learn how to help your child improve how he communicates what he wants or needs. Children with autism have significant difficulty using verbal and non-verbal language to communicate, as well as difficulty understanding the verbal and non-verbal language of others. In this course, you will learn to observe how your child currently communicates what he wants, and learn specific strategies to help your child learn new ways of communicating his/her wants and needs. Step by step video illustrations of parents using the techniques are provided.
Welcome video. Lisa Wallace, M.A., CCC-SLP, the course instructor, welcomes you to the course and provides an overview of the course goals and content.
Overview of Autism and Communication. Children with autism have significant difficulty understanding the verbal and nonverbal language of others. They also have difficulty using verbal and nonverbal language to communicate to others. In this section you will learn about the core features of autism and how they affect how your child learns to communicate.
What is Communication? This module covers the fundamentals of communication, including the key parts of your child’s communication that we will be focusing on improving during this course.
What is Requesting? Providing a more effective way for your child to let you know what he or she wants is one of the most important skills for your child to learn. In this module you will learn in more detail what motivates a child to request and the different ways a child can request.
Identifying Requesting Behaviors. Children can use a variety of verbal and nonverbal behaviors to let you know what they want or need. However, children with autism have limited ways of communicating their needs and often do not send clear messages to let you know what they want. In this module, you will learn about the different ways that children with ASD typically request and practice identifying different types of requesting behaviors.
Observing How My Child Requests and Best Next Steps. In this module you will learn to identify how your child currently requests and then determine the best next step for your child. The aim is to help you understand how your child requests now, so you can choose an appropriate goal for your child, based on your child’s current communication skills.
Improving How My Child Requests. In this section, you will learn specific strategies for improving how you child requests, based on the specific goals you have identified for your child.
Prompting and Modeling. Prompting and modeling are two strategies that are known to be effective in teaching young children with autism. Based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA), they are two of the best ways to teach your child new communication skills. In this module you will learn how to use prompting and modeling to improve how your child requests.
Teaching My Child to Look When Requesting. Looking towards you when your child is requesting is an important part of communication. Teaching your child to look towards you when requesting can be challenging, but once your child understands the power of sending his message by looking, he or she will became a more effective communicator.
Motivating my Child to Request. It is important that you know what motivates your child so you can set up situations for him to request and so that you can reinforce him when you see desired behaviors. In this module you will learn how to identify what interests your child.
Using Pictures. For children who are not yet using sounds and words to communicate, pictures can be a very effective strategy to improve their requesting skills. Pictures can help children make a connection between verbal speech and the world around them. Using pictures does not inhibit a child’s verbal speech development, and may even accelerate it in some children. In this module you will learn the steps for teaching your child how to use pictures to request.
Sign Language. This module reviews the pros and cons using of sign language as a means of communication in children with autism.
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