Teaching Child Communication Skills

I am a student working with a child with classic autism. This child is a seven year old male who is mostly nonverbal. His family and therapists are currently exploring whether PECS or ASL will be most functional for this child to develop language. However, the mother expressed that he does use echolalia occasionally, and often times with communicative attempt. For example, he repeats the phrase “only at Walmart” when he wants to go to Walmart. What are some strategies I can share with this family  for expanding or shaping these behaviors into purposeful communication?

How can I prevent a student from being non-compliant during groups or activities?

I have some students who continually get into arguments or fights. Many times I don’t know who did what. I don’t like to give consequences without having enough information and they of course blame each other. Do you have any suggestions?

What do you do with a student who continually asks questions unrelated to the topic being discussed? When they are not allowed to ask off topic questions they become upset or angry.

My student has a melt-down when there is a change from outdoor play/recess to indoor play. How can we make him understand the visual picture change to his schedule?

How do I get a student to tell me what it is he wants?

I can’t get my student to request something without providing a verbal prompt or model. He is so dependent on me and waits until I ask him to talk.

There’s a student in my class who tends to focus only on the “bad” things that happened during the day. She then goes home and becomes upset as she relives the negatives with her mother. Is there anything I can do to help her see that there are many positives in the school day?

I have a student with behavioral challenges who refuses to ask for help when he gets stuck on a problem. I am his regular education teacher but there is an aide in the classroom to assist him. I don’t think he wants to stand out from his peers or “look stupid”. Eventually he gets frustrated, then we see behavior problems that disrupt the class. Any ideas?

My daughter has delayed language skills and I am looking for a fun language activity that we can do at home in the evenings. She is at school all day so by the time she gets home, she is pretty exhausted and really doesn’t want to do more work!