Activities, Strategies and Games to Encourage Language Development
1. Observe with interest + clarify child’s emotional experience
* Name what child sees/ is interested in, especially
frustrations, what s/he wants or fears
* Help child create some order in his/her mind through the
most basic contrasts:
there - gone, in - out, first - then, this - that,
here - there, up - down...
* Tell him ‘It’s time to do something different’ - and WAIT!
* Don’t go silent too: talk to him, - if only because it keeps you alive and thinking
and: you never know, he may be listening! Keep him/her ‘live company’!
2. Don’t take over, but follow child’s lead
* Try to look at things from child’s (not your/ adult’s) perspective + join child in it
* Differentiate between what you/adult wants from what child wants
* Who owns the sound/ the game/ the enjoyment? (Don’t be selfish!)
* Does he want to share the experience, - or do you/adult want to have it?
* Don’t teach (child is not a machine to be programmed), but join in and share in the
fun/ game/ activity/ exploration/ ...
* Offer words that child might find useful/empowering (but not to teach or satisfy adult):
e.g. give child opportunities to say ‘no’, ‘byebye’, ‘gone’, Away Game
3. Wait! and Give child time!
* Wait and listen: don’t rush before child can think/ make a sound to communicate
* Be respectful: child may be slower than you, his/her mental system might need time to
limber up: don’t inhibit child’s attempts at getting ‘it’ going
* Help child to mentalise/ to use his mind: ‘Tug’ on his mind!
4. Activities, games and things you can do
* Mouth And Face Games: make and copy child’s sounds
* Sing a song or running commentary, - then stop and wait
with full attention/ suspense
(for as long as it takes) for child to continue
* Point things out to child, that s/he would be interested in
* Mental ‘hide and seek’
e.g. are you teaching him words that are relevant to HIM/ HER (e.g. is ‘plane’ important to him/her, if s/he hasn’t yet got his/her head around ‘in’?)
trying to make him say something vs. because it will be helpful to him
e.g. child saying ‘bye bye’ can leave easier = feels HE is making it happen = his choice
Email: info@reachingautism.org
1. Observe with interest + clarify child’s emotional experience
* Name what child sees/ is interested in, especially
frustrations, what s/he wants or fears
* Help child create some order in his/her mind through the
most basic contrasts:
there - gone, in - out, first - then, this - that,
here - there, up - down...
* Tell him ‘It’s time to do something different’ - and WAIT!
* Don’t go silent too: talk to him, - if only because it keeps you alive and thinking
and: you never know, he may be listening! Keep him/her ‘live company’!
2. Don’t take over, but follow child’s lead
* Try to look at things from child’s (not your/ adult’s) perspective + join child in it
* Differentiate between what you/adult wants from what child wants
* Who owns the sound/ the game/ the enjoyment? (Don’t be selfish!)
* Does he want to share the experience, - or do you/adult want to have it?
* Don’t teach (child is not a machine to be programmed), but join in and share in the
fun/ game/ activity/ exploration/ ...
* Offer words that child might find useful/empowering (but not to teach or satisfy adult):
e.g. give child opportunities to say ‘no’, ‘byebye’, ‘gone’, Away Game
3. Wait! and Give child time!
* Wait and listen: don’t rush before child can think/ make a sound to communicate
* Be respectful: child may be slower than you, his/her mental system might need time to
limber up: don’t inhibit child’s attempts at getting ‘it’ going
* Help child to mentalise/ to use his mind: ‘Tug’ on his mind!
4. Activities, games and things you can do
* Mouth And Face Games: make and copy child’s sounds
* Sing a song or running commentary, - then stop and wait
with full attention/ suspense
(for as long as it takes) for child to continue
* Point things out to child, that s/he would be interested in
* Mental ‘hide and seek’
e.g. are you teaching him words that are relevant to HIM/ HER (e.g. is ‘plane’ important to him/her, if s/he hasn’t yet got his/her head around ‘in’?)
trying to make him say something vs. because it will be helpful to him
e.g. child saying ‘bye bye’ can leave easier = feels HE is making it happen = his choice
Email: info@reachingautism.org
