Child Care and Communication: Autism and Effective Strategies

This report focuses on the crucial aspect of communication in child development, particularly addressing the challenges faced by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The paper begins by highlighting the significance of effective communication in a child's overall development, emphasizing how communication difficulties can impact future growth and potential. The report presents a case study of Christine, a two-and-a-half-year-old child with autism, illustrating her specific communication challenges, including difficulties with gestures, following directions, and verbal expression. It then delves into Dore's primitive communicative functions, analyzing how Christine's communication deviates from the typical developmental stages. The report emphasizes the need for tailored strategies for children with special needs, recommending approaches such as encouraging interactive play, providing simplified language, and fostering patience. The report also stresses the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques for teachers and parents, including making conversations engaging, being resilient, and showing affection to create a positive and supportive environment for children with autism.

Running head: CHILD CARE AND COMMUNICATION
Child care and communication
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The aim of the paper is to evaluate the issues of proper communication of a child and its
significance since it has been observed that the problem of developing effective communication
at the childhood is crucial to overall development of the child (Barnett et al., 2016). The issue of
communication is one of the key aspects of the holistic development of the child. This process
determines the process of future growth of the child and extent of achieving fulfillment of
potential in future (Goldstein et al., 2018). Children with special needs have especially with
autism are subjected to understanding emotions and in most of the situations, they misinterpret
what is being delivered to them. The issue of autism spectrum disorder is common to children
that is associated with the developmental disorder. The ASD affected people are can range from
mild to severe and the level of issues associated with them also differs. ASD can occur to anyone
belonging to any age group and it is primarily the difficulty in their social interaction and
communication which is the source of issue to be discussed here. Some of the common issues of
ASD affected issues are rigid and inflexible communication. This is one of the issues that
children are faced with since they do not understand the message communicated to them which
is reflected in the way they communicate back (Koegel et al., 2016). For example, when a child
is told up and down, in most of the cases, she or he is not aware of the communication done to
them. This repetitive behavior limits their communication process and breaks the follow of
conversation.
Secondly, communication gap is also associated with the process of uneven development
of languages. This is one of the issues that impacts the development of the child’s speech since

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they develop their words depending on their way of interest, it is not properly development or
impacted the way it should be(Levy et al., 2016).
Thirdly, the issue of communication gap is also reflected in poor sense of non-verbal
communication. The communication process is associated with the development of both verbal
and non-verbal communication (Levy et al., 2016).
Description of the child’s background: Christine is two and half year child who has
autism and this has restricted her development of proper communication (Refer to appendix A).
The child’s parents have consulted the speech development therapist who has understood the
gravity of the situation. Child is suffering from the following issues: Christine has the issue of
understanding the normal gestures, pointing or waiving gestures, she also has issues with
following directions. She fails to understand written or spoken words. She is subjected to the
issue like writing, reading, communicating and repeating one word multiple words. In terms of
social interaction, it has been observed that the child is mostly subjected to saying aloof and
alone in most of the times. She is reluctant to share toys and things with others. In terms of the
eating habit, Christine faces the issue of holding the spoon in the right manner, it has also been
observed that the child is challenged with the ability of eating in the right manner since the
understanding of eating is yet to be developed in her.
Dore’s primitive communicative functions:
Considering the case of Christine, it can be said that Dore’s primitive communication
method is based on number of parameters like labeling, answering and requesting an answer.
After this step, the child is always requesting the answer form the receptors. This system is also
associated with the approach of calling, greeting or protesting against certain things. The last

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parameter of this communication is imitating and practicing (Mandy et al., 2016). This model
clearly explains the system of development child’s communicative approach. However in case
of the Christine, it was observed that she is unable to communicate like all other normal child,
she unable to mark the demand of the speaker since she is not able to label difference between
questions or answer. In case of requesting an answer, Christine is not able to communicate what
is she expecting to be answered. Mostly importantly like the normal children, she is not able to
understand the importance of greeting and calling. This is restrictive of her expressing her
behavior. In case of some to be asked or protested, she is not able to clearly convey her message
and this process is leading to the yelling or crying since she is not able to understand the
issue. This is important to consider the fact that there are certain basic communication system
which is to be fulfilled properly in order to manage the flown of conversation.
The development of communication happens in number of ways and for a child, it is the
primary institutions of schools where the learn to develop the understanding languages and ways
of interaction (Spain et al., 2017). However what is important here to understand is the fact that
children with special needs have other requirements and their development of communicative
skills happens at the later stage. This is restrictive of their normal interaction with the rest of the
normal peers. However in case of lack of communicative skills development of the autistic
child, the teacher or mentor requires an additional knowledge of developing it in the most
meaningful manner, some of the recommendation of developing this communicative skills are :
Proper response to the children in order to teach them proper vocalizations and speech,
this process has to be substantiated by the process of non verbal communication. In terms of
developing non-verbal communication of the autistic children, it n is suggested the children or
the parent has to play more interactive role (Spain et al., 2017 ). It is recommended that in case

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on non-verbal communication development, the child should be encouraged to participate in
social interaction in order to understand the children’s behavior amongst the social group.
Focusing on the non-verbal aspects of their behavior will give a brief overview of the child’s
receptive ability towards other’s response. This is also recommended that the importance of
leaving space for the child is very much necessary for the teacher since it is important for them
top enjoy their own company. Children should feel the urge to develop their own understanding
of the issues on their own and their need to respond to certain situation. It is equally important
for the teacher to develop a simplified way of communicating by simplifying the languages in
which he or she is communicating (Barnett et al., 2016). This helps to find the right answer for
the child in case of complexity. This is also recommended to the teacher that he or she should be
having prior knowledge for the inertest of the child in order to draw his or her attention towards
certain things that can engage them towards effective communication.
However non-verbal communication is just one part of the conversation, there is a need
of developing verbal communication in the most effective way in order to understand the way
she or he is communicating.
In case of verbal communication, the teacher should be undertaking the following
methods:
As per the therapist chosen for Christine, she mentions that the importance of making any
conversation for the child is crucial to have meaningful communication with them. it is also
important for them to develop interest in every talk that can make realize the child that the
teacher is interest to communicate in the most crucial manner. This also creates the development
of enthusiasm on the child towards any meaningful communication. In order to make

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meaningful conversation with the child who has autism, it is essential to develop the attitude of
resilience since it is sometimes difficult to communicate with these children as they take more
time in conversing than the normal children. Moreover, these communications have to be
meaningful in terms of teaching them positive things about the surrounding, people and
importance of listening. One of the primary aspects of this communication is being patient with
self and the child as their process of information might take longer. In case of repetition of work,
the teacher or the parent must be aware and refrain from using frowned or irritative face since it
has also been observed that such expression impacts the child more than the normal child
(Barnett et al., 2016). It is likely to make more impact on the child than the normal child. In
addition to this, it is also significant to note that being affectionate and respectful to the child will
create the sense of deep bond between the teacher and child. This is likely to create a positive
impact on the child and they are more likely to communicate with those whom they feel they can
easily relate to (Goldstein et al., 2018) This is important for this child that they develop a sense
of comfort and desirability, since it has been found that affection is likely to impact the child in a
better way. What is interesting to note is that the feeling of love and interest towards the child is
likely to draw their interest towards the conservation which is important for developing the basic
communication skills to these children with autism.
Conclusion
The aim of this report has been analyzing the issue of communication of Christine who
has been detected with early autism. This has been realized that she is facing some of the issue
with communication due to the underdevelopment of their communication skills. The purpose of
this study is to understand the nuances if the issue and effective recommendations have been

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suggested for the teachers and parents in order to develop communications skills in the child for
any meaningful communication in future.

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Reference
Barnett, J. E. H., & O’shaughnessy, K. (2015). Enhancing collaboration between occupational
therapists and early childhood educators working with children on the autism
spectrum. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(6), 467-472.
Goldstein, S., & Ozonoff, S. (Eds.). (2018). Assessment of autism spectrum disorder. Guilford
Publications.
Koegel, L. K., Ashbaugh, K., Navab, A., & Koegel, R. L. (2016). Improving empathic
communication skills in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and
developmental disorders, 46(3), 921-933.
Levy, S. E., Frasso, R., Colantonio, S., Reed, H., Stein, G., Barg, F. K., ... & Fiks, A. G. (2016).
Shared decision making and treatment decisions for young children with autism spectrum
disorder. Academic pediatrics, 16(6), 571-578.
Mandy, W., Wang, A., Lee, I., & Skuse, D. (2017). Evaluating social (pragmatic)
communication disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(10), 1166-
1175.
Spain, D., Sin, J., Paliokosta, E., Furuta, M., Prunty, J. E., Chalder, T., ... & Happé, F. G. (2017).
Family therapy for autism spectrum disorders. Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews, (5).

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Appendix A
Christine: she is the two and half years child who is suffering from autism which has impacted
in the development of her communication abilities.
Teacher: say sun.
Christine: does not say anything, says after a pause, sunn.
Teacher: say up and down
Christine: finds it difficult to understand the terminology. Understands and response later
Teacher: see the parachute
Christine: does not respond at all
Teacher: say uppp, say down
Christine: responds after multiple times
Teacher: tries to request number of times what is a rocket
Christine: finds it difficult what is rocket, repeats number of times, Rocket
Teacher: shows spiders and plastic insects
Christine: smiles
Teacher: what is your name?
Christine: what is your name?

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Teacher: who are you?
Christine: who are you?