Social Communication

See if you can answer these simple questions.

What is communication?

What do you need for effective communication?

How many people do you need for effective communication?

Now I’m not going to give you the answers to these as you can simply look them up, but it’s interesting to think that the answers don’t come easily and we have to give these questions a little thought. Of course when it comes to communicating we just seem to do it. What is quite interesting though is that for certain individuals on the spectrum, communication does not come intuitive. In his book How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?: Inside My Autistic Mind Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Talk-Lips-Dont-Move/dp/1611450225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446450815&sr=8-1&keywords=how+can+i+talk+if+my+lips+don%27t+move+inside+my+autistic+mind

talks about this very problem. So some individuals never develop speech, unfortunately we live in a time when it is often seen that the ability not to be able to speak is often linked to intelligence, which is just not the case. Tito and fellow author Carly Fleischmann in Carly's Voice: Breaking Through Autism http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carlys-Voice-Breaking-Through-Autism/dp/1439194157/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446451100&sr=1-1&keywords=carly+fleischmann totally dispels this myth. Jim Sinclair an individual with ASD once said “It’s as though some individuals on the spectrum don’t know what communication is for” He also said this:

“It takes more work to communicate with someone whose native language isn’t the same as yours. And autism goes deeper than language and culture; autistic people are foreigners in any society. You’re going to have to give up your assumptions about shared meanings. You’re going to have to learn to back up to levels more basic than you probably thought about before, to translate and to make sure your translations are understood. You’re going to have to give up the certainty that comes of being on your own familiar territory of knowing your in charge, and let your child teach you a little of their language, guide you a little way into his world” (Sinclair 1993)

If you do have a child that is non-verbal I can’t emphasise enough the importance of teaching your child at the very least to use a communication system such as PECS or Makaton. Communication is a basic human right and without it an individual can never get their needs met. People mean well but you are only guessing what an individual wants unless they have the ability to tell you in one form or another.

A lot of children are now being encouraged to use augmented communication systems. These are systems that make use of tablets and lap tops. There is a page on Facebook called Kreed’s World https://www.facebook.com/kreedsworld/?fref=ts it is a great example of how with a lot of effort an individual can excel in the use of such systems.

Now if you have a child that just does not want to engage with the outside world and appears locked in then I would recommend looking at intensive interaction http://www.intensiveinteraction.co.uk/courses-events/intensive-interaction/Intensive interaction is an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have severe learning difficulties and/or autism and who are still at an early stage of communication development.

Finally if you are still not convinced then consider these wise words:

“If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication. For with it I would regain all the rest.” Daniel Webster