Help for the Non-Verbal Child … Hope for the Family

I received a call from a parent desperately wanting to discuss a friend’s dilemma.  For purposes of this blog, let’s call her friend … Lisa.  Lisa, who lives in another city, phoned her dear friend in tears after leaving a meeting with her son’s therapist.  Her son is a 4-year-old child with autism who is currently non-verbal.   He is a loving child with one good word -  “Go!” and currently doesn’t present with any maladaptive behaviors: biting, spitting, hitting, kicking, etc.   Well, after leaving this meeting, Lisa was in shock when her son’s speech therapist informed her that they were going to begin teaching him to use an iPad to increase his communication skills.  Lisa was so deeply heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief.  She desperately cried out questions to her friend in despair, “So … will my son never use his own voice?”  “Is his therapist giving up on his ability to use verbal language?”   “What kind of life will he have walking around with an iPad versus using his own voice?”  “How did your daughter learn to talk?”

My heart ached upon hearing this.  Allow me to say that there are literally two sides to me: (1) the Crazy Mama and (2) the speech pathologist.  I literally had to have the speech pathologist calm the Crazy Mama down for a moment so that I could respond professionally.  Here is my professional response:

Picture Communication is a commonly used method by speech-language pathologists, special needs teachers, and educators to increase a child's understanding of basic labeling, routines and sequential ordering of events.  Picture Communication is a tremendously effective method to use in the home and early classrooms of toddlers and young children (even older school ages) to assist them with learning their daily schedules, following basic routines and labeling various objects in the home.  Most neurotypical children comprehend pictures quicker than oral directives.  

I used picture communication with my daughter when she was young to help her to literally “see” what she was going to do each day.  If the swimming picture was on the board for that day, she was able to get mentally prepared to swim and wash hair afterward (a totally different blog topic unto itself).  These pictures greatly assisted in increasing her ability to transition between activities with significantly fewer tantrums and allowed her some autonomy over her day.  While, at the same time, decreasing the amount of stress I felt as a working mother juggling personalities and schedules.  

Assistive technology is the use of any device (both electronic and paper) to increase a child’s receptive and expressive language skills.  The iPad is often used by therapists in their treatment of a child’s language skills.  There are programs for countless Picture Communication Boards via the iPad for both therapists and their young patients to use.  Most allow the iPad to verbally speak the language of each picture the child has touched.  Thereby becoming the child’s “voice”.   For non-verbal children with good receptive language skills, this method is used to allow the child to experience the power of expressive language independently.  Thereby increasing their communication skills across environments.

My personal response:

If a child can say “go”; he can say “no!”.  Don’t give up.  Keep working for oral speech!  While I may be guilty of simplifying the structured, detailed process of attaining receptive and expressive language skills, I am very passionate about our ability to motivate children to find the power of their voice and the wonder of the sounds they alone can create to change their environments.   Many children with autism are non-verbal for years before they begin producing oral speech.  With quality, consistent therapy, many of these children begin producing fluid speech by the time they are 5 years old and gain language skills comparable to their neuro-typical peers. 

Throughout a child’s non-verbal years, they are actively receiving and learning the language.  This stated, it takes a lot for me to not “push” oral speech in children.  While the process can be very slow, once I have engaged the child in play, I truly place my faith in the language development process. 

I have witnessed far too many children with significant language delays become fluid speakers.  How?  Through quality DIR Floortime, love, patience and consistency. 

DIR Floortime – developmental, individual-difference, relationship-based approach to increasing the language skills of children with autism, language delay and survivors of trauma.  As a DIR Floortime practitioner, I actively observe and follow the sensory needs of each child throughout our session and develop sensory-based play/language activities individualized to meet the specific sensory needs of each individual child.  In so doing, I actively increase the regulation skills of my children while increasing their personal relationships. 

An unregulated child can not attend to language fully because their sensory regulation systems are not in sync.

There is hope for the non-verbal child with autism.  Through the love of play, there is light, happiness and hope every day.