OAFCCD: Helping your child communicate

Some children may be difficult to understand. Strategies which may facilitate communication include: 

o Pay close attention to their communication attempts. 

o Respond as soon as you can so that communication attempts are encouraged. It gives the child feedback that what he/she has to say is important. 

o Encourage the child to repeat information. (Tell me again.) o Repeat back portions of the message that were understood and have the child fill in. (The boy saw a ___________.) 

o Ask key questions (Kate went where? or Joel said what?) 

o Watch the type of questions you ask. If the child is difficult to understand, questions requiring shorter responses may facilitate success.

o Have the child provide additional information (Tell me more about it.; Tell me more about your party.) 

o Have the child ‘Show you’ or ‘Take you there’. 

o If you understand what the child says, do not ask him/her to repeat in order to correct pronunciation or grammatical errors. 

o Once the message is interpreted, repeat it back to the child - this provides an appropriate model. 

o Use others in the child's environment to help you fill in details (eg. parents, assistants, other children) 

o Sometimes you may need to acknowledge that you do not understand and that you will try again next time.