Communication Strategies for Children with ASD

Communication Strategies for Children with ASD
Children with ASD struggle to communicate, express their liking, and make requests. Determining which communication strategy will be effective for a particular child depends on their ability to make choices, fine motor skills, and skillfulness with an image- item- correspondence. Experience with various forms of communication affects the choice of strategic communication that would work best. A communication tool must enable the child with ASD to interact independently with people who they have not met or interacted with before.
Children who use the PECS communication strategy carry around a hardcover book containing various icons. The icons are usually simple images, symbols, photographs, and words. The child can express themselves by lining up words and pictures as a sentence or by displaying one image. The idea behind PECS is that learning happens because of the consequence or reward accompanied by a particular behavior or event (Flippin et al., 2010). In this communication strategy, ASD children use picture cards to express t...