⏺️🎙️ Growing Communication Through Play, Games & Other Activities

Join Dr. Jennifer Welker for an engaging webinar exploring different levels of play and interaction to foster communication growth. For younger children, play can be a powerful tool for building predictable communication patterns. Parents and carers will discover practical strategies to follow their child’s lead while incorporating structure into playtime for meaningful learning experiences. 

Dr. Welker will also share tips on how to create a positive, fun environment that fosters connection while teaching valuable communication skills. By being present and intentional, you can set the stage for long-term growth and help your child develop essential communication habits in a way that feels natural and enjoyable.

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Transcript

If you are here, hopefully you're here to just learn about how to grow communication, and I'm going to specifically focus on play Games activities and give some different examples, depending on the age of the child. So I've worked with children all the way from three years old up through high school.

And there's definitely ways that you can grow communication at every level. And then of course I, if you've been on with me before, I have talked about my daughter before who is two and she.  Is another in another phase of communication as well. So I have that personal experience going on right now about language development as well as all of my experience in school.

So just to talk about that a little bit. If you don't know me this is my 17 year 17th year working in education in a school setting. So I actually work right now. I am a special education director in my school district in Missouri. And but prior to this year, I have been in the classroom as a special education teacher and specifically worked with students with autism or other behavioral needs, majority of that time.

And so I've been able to work with students who are all the way from nonverbal to ones that have really good communication, but maybe just need a To work on some of their social language and social skills. So yeah, communication, we'll talk about it today. It spans a very wide range.

And hopefully we'll hit all of that today. I have been an a 360 coach since December of 2020. So really like everybody went virtual around that time with COVID, so I kinda. Got in at the best time. I do have a doctorate of education in organizational leadership in special education.

I'm a BCBA. So that's board certified behavior analyst which also means that I have studied and made it part of my my work to really take data and analyze that data to see how.  to promote behavior change. And communication is part of that. So when we talk about developing communication, that is a type of behavior change.

So we'll look at communication from a verbal behavior perspective today as well. But most importantly, I am a wife, I'm a mother, and I'm a dog mom. My dog is around, so he may pop in at some point to check on me. And if he does, we'll let him say hi. And like I said, my daughter is  And so that'll, she's starting to talk a lot and that communication is really coming through.

And so I, I try to practice what I preach and while we're interacting and while we're playing together I'm trying to build her communication during that time as well. And finally, what qualifies me to give this besides all of that is just, I'm someone who likes to play games and do activities.

In that there's a lot of communication opportunities. That being said, we will go ahead and get started.  So our overall goal and agenda for this evening, if you are in the States or this morning, if you are are one of our friends overseas in Australia we're going to focus on the importance of communication first.

Then we're going to work on how we can. communicate that early communication during play, and how we can build that. Then we'll move on to social communication during games, and then just how to keep it going during various other activities. You might also, if you think of an activity that your child really likes to do, and I don't talk about it, and you want to pop that in the chat, we can always brainstorm too, like how can we build communication during that specific area of interest.

Okay, so just talking about the importance of communication. Without even looking at my notes or the agenda, obviously communication is key in everything we do. If we can't communicate, then we probably can't get our needs met. And we'd have a really hard time being able to interact with others.

And I'm going to define communication for us real quick as a social experience. I can talk, but if I'm not talking to someone and there's not some reciprocal opportunity, then it's really not communication because I'm not communicating anything. So when we talk about communication, it is between more than one person because it has a purpose.

Whoops.  Sorry about that. Okay, so continuing with that communication is sharing information with someone else at its core. That's why we do it. We want to tell someone something that we're thinking, or we want to gain information back from them. So it's just that process of sharing. But really think about what about when that communication is difficult. 

Or what if the exchange is hindered? So these pictures show that I'm sure we've been in a situation before where somebody's talking about something and we're like, I have, no idea what they're saying. I can't relate. I can't understand what they're trying to communicate. And that can be, really frustrated and even embarrassing at times.

And and then we have our kids, of course, who maybe they don't have that skill developed quite yet. And it can be very frustrating for them to not be able to get their point across to us. So we have to think about what do we do When that communication is blocked or hindered. So I like to think of it this way.

How would you communicate in a foreign country? So thankfully when I meet with my Australian clients we all still speak English, right? There are some words that we may say differently. I say that diapers, you say nappies there's many other things. And I say pacifier. Or binky and you say dummy, so those are things I've learned  as I've gone along and, we'll say, how are you doing?

And in Australia, you'll say, how are you going? So those are things that we learn through exposure and experience. But what if you went to a foreign country where  the language was completely different? And I've been to Mexico before. I've been to overseas to Samoa and New Zealand and Australia, which thankfully was fine.

But some of the other countries it can be difficult if you don't know that language. So just picture it right now. Like you're walking down the street of a country that's totally new to you. The signs are in a different language. The people. are all buzzing around speaking a different language and you need something in that moment, right?

Maybe you need food, maybe you need to go to the bathroom, maybe you're trying to find your way somewhere. And so how are you going to communicate with the people around you when you speak a totally different language? And think about how frustrating that is and how much how flustering that can be when you don't know.

And there's some common signs we can all do. We can point, we can gesture we can draw it out or draw a picture, use a picture, use a visual. And that might help us. But if I need something and I need it right now and the people around me don't understand, I might get very frustrated and very scared even.

So that feeling, think about our kids when they don't have the skill and the ability to communicate what they need, clearly  think about how that might make them feel and how polarizing that is. And also, Even for those that are higher language users, so they may have really good repertoire of words, but they still have issues communicating their needs exactly as what they're really thinking or feeling.

A lot of times that would create some anxiety too, and When we get anxious and when we get upset our thought processes get even more jarbled. It's just this domino effect that's very negative when we can't communicate clearly.  Okay, so I had mentioned verbal behavior since I'm a behavior analyst.

It really is helpful to look at communication and language in this framework. Okay, so when we and when I say verbal, it's not necessarily all Like speaking. This could also go in some cases for sign, or it could go for using an AAC device.  So verbal behavior just literally means like that communication behavior.

So  I'm going to define these for you. The first one is called MANS, which is just a fancy word for requests. So at our very core.  Probably the most important.  This is the most important form of verbal behavior because when we need something, we would make a request. We would indicate that we want something or we need something somehow.

Again, you can do that by asking specifically. Can I have this? You can point at something. You can hold something up. So Oh, I want my phone. I need to talk to someone. So there's lots of ways that we can make a request. We could write it down and hold it up to someone to read. So that is one type of behavior that we use when we communicate. 

The next one is tacting, which is a fancy way to say you're labeling something. That's a tree, that's an apple, that's a dog, that's a person. Just being able to know what something is called is very important. And in pointing this out, I just want to say sometimes a child will know a tact for something.

I know that is a cat, right? Or I know that is a a box of juice. But, can they request it when they need it? Which would make it amand.  And some kids, they'll know the words for things, but then when they need to use it functionally to get what, to get that item, then they cannot recall that word.

Because it's not, that item's not like visually in front of them, right? And it can be vice versa. They might know how to ask for something when they need it, or indicate that they want it by pointing, but when you say, hey, what's this called, they can't remember or they don't know that word yet.

So just really think about those differences. Cause a lot of times I've been in the classroom where we've been teaching this and someone will say they know what that's called. They can ask for it. And it's yeah, because they can tell you what it is doesn't always mean that they know how to request that item.

Especially if it's out of sight. So that's why it's important to know there are skills that are developed in all of these areas separately. And then they work together with each other. So then we have a coex, which is really just echoing. So that's the ability to say and to imitate language.

Or sign.  So if I say hello, and you can repeat hello. That's an echoic. Or if it's A says ah, and the child can say ah, they are echoing me. So that's what it is simply.  People also sometimes think just because a child repeats you means that they understand what it is, and that they are able to understand the label and the name of the item.

That's not always true either. So it, again, it is important to know the difference.  Then we have listener responding. So that is when someone is able to really understand a direction and follow that direction. Come here and they're able to do that. Or what is this thing that I'm holding and they're able to reference it and then label it, so those are that's another form of communication and verbal behavior.

And then finally, intraverbals, and we use this a lot, because really they're just questions, or fill in the blanks. If I said, Old MacDonald had a  farm, you could probably fill that in, right? That's an intraverbal. Or if I said, at this time of year, Merry  Christmas, or Happy Christmas. holidays or Hanukkah, so you know in context how to finish that sentence.

At the same time, if I were to say, Hey, what's your name? And you have to respond and fill in the blank to answer the question. That's another form of intraverbal. So language does build usually starts with requesting because we have to meet our basic needs first. Then we learn the names of things.

We we do that through learning how to repeat and echo.  We can then follow directions. And then we can start answering questions and learning  that there's some consistency in the patterns of our phrases and language. Anyway, that's verbal behavior and just really helpful to know where your child might be in the spectrum of things.

They can do one, but maybe they aren't strong in the other yet, and that's okay. That's just, it helps you to know where to go next. Okay having that background now.  Let's look into specific examples of how we can build early communication during play. Okay, so it's playtime.  What does that look like?

Playtime is usually child led. They pick and choose what they want to do, right?  It's also automatically reinforcing, which means  whatever they're doing, if it's something that they enjoy, It's just automatically makes them happy and makes them want to continue to play, most of the time. Now there are those occasional toys or activities that get, are hard, or they present a challenge, or maybe the batteries die, and then it's not so reinforcing anymore but just in general, toys and playing with whatever they choose is going to be reinforcing. 

Playtime allows us to engage and enter Their world where they are right now. And there's different levels of play as well. I'm not going to go into all of that early childhood development during this presentation. There's different types of play to where you start with A child, like parallel play.

So you're playing next to them and not really together, and then you work into having it be more interactive. You might see that with an early learner where it's more of, I'm trying to join you, but you're doing your own thing, and I'm just next to you. But the goal is to work towards having to be a little bit more social, so that it is communication that we're building.

Playtime. Often brings about a lot of emotions. It can bring joy. It can bring happiness, laughter, hopefully. So emotional experiences are the ones that our brains are more likely to commit to memory and Things that happen when we feel emotions are more likely to stick with us more long term.

So that's why building communication during play is such a great time, because you're already having, fun and good feelings. And that paired along with communication is a really good thing. And during playtime, you can model. You can model how to use toys. I'll use an example. So my daughter, like I said, she's two, she was two in September, so she's still a young two, right?

So there's a lot of toys that she's mastered that she knows how to play with them. And then there's others that are completely new. And we'll probably see a lot of this at this time of year, right? If you celebrate Christmas and you're giving gifts.  There's probably going to be a lot of novelty and a lot of new, and that can be really fun.

But it can also be an unsure thing for some of our kids if they aren't, if they don't know how to use the toy, right? And it's not doing what they want right away. So that gives us a chance to model Oh, here's what you do with this. Here's how you build the blocks. Here's how you turn this toy on.

Here's how you make it go. So yeah, lots of opportunities during play to teach. So if you're wanting to build communication,  during play, you really want to do this process right here, okay? So you want to create a pattern, you want to join in their play, you want to model simple language, you want to control the environment a bit without hindering play, and you want to expand their language. 

And as they grow, and as they build their language, you continue to expand it. This is like a tiered process or a level process. So when you first, the first thing you have to do is join in. So they're playing with let's say they're playing with cars. Okay. And they're just pushing the cars around or.

Or throwing them across the room and watching them roll right so just being able to get on the other side of that car and roll it back just joining in and doing what they're doing modeling simple language. So that might look like as I'm rolling the car. I am simply saying go.  And then they hopefully do it back to you and then you continue to say, go,  look, car, go. 

And it's very simple and repetitive. And when I say controlling the environment without hindering play, I mean when you want to build communication, you want to be able to have some consistency to create those patterns. So maybe don't have a whole box of cars out at the same time where your child might be tempted to just dump them or throw them or get overwhelmed.

So you might just have a few cars out. You're controlling that scenario, but still giving them room to play. Or maybe you have a car track.  And you're putting the cars on the track, and you are able to control and manipulate when the child can access that track. So that, and I'll go more into this, I think, on the next slide, but there was one of those toys where you put the cars on, and there's two tracks, it's like it races, and you press the button, and the cars go down at the same time, and oh, was it the red car or the blue car that wins, right?

And I would I would encourage communication. Instead of just letting the child put the cars on, press it, put the cars on, press it, and I'm just sitting there watching, right? I would block. They'd put the cars on, and I'd block. So they can't just press it, and I'd say, Ready, set. Go and go, hopefully they repeat it or they're looking at me and then I move my hand and let them press it.

And so then it's very exciting. It's very fun. And it's Oh, let's do it again. Put the cars on.  Ready, set, go. And so just Being able to stop them from just going tempts them to have to speak, right? Because in order to press the button, I have to say something or I have to look at you or indicate something.

If it's on an AAC,  they might be pressing a button.  They might be using a card or signing it. But either way, I have to communicate with you socially. I have to look at you or towards what we're doing. And I have to.  Communicate something in order to get what I want. And that is the complete goal here is you have to tempt them to interact with you to get what they want in the play scenario.

And I don't mean it to sound manipulative. It's not it's not meant to be something that like frustrates them or ruins their plans. Okay. This is just when they allow it. And when they're okay with it, these are just ways that you can incorporate that communication building.  And my goal for that particular situation would be that I'm prompting, Go!

And they can echo that echoic, Go! But then after several times of doing this pattern, I might say,

and just wait, and they'll Go, or guh, or whatever form of go that they know, and so then they've done it independently, so that helps me to know that they are figuring it out, and then they're starting to use that word to communicate,  and then that's how you can expand it as your child's communication grows.

So let's say it's been a couple weeks. and that child has learned how to say go or ready, set, I say ready, set, and they say go because that gets them what they want. So then I might build it and expand it to where they're saying ready, set, go, or I say ready and they say set, go. And I've actually done this before where a child has gone from go to set, go to ready, set, go, and car. 

Push car. Push car, please. Push car down. But it is really important to keep the language simple at first. Whatever level your child is at that moment keep it there. One, one, two words, and then once they master that, then add on and add intonation and all of those things. Okay, so cars on a track. 

I've pretty much already given that example. And this toy here shows what I, one example of what I was talking about. It's a really  good toy when you're trying to build communication because it does naturally lend itself to repetition. Because you're going to put the car on and it's going to go down.

So that that allows you to get several rounds of creating this vocabulary in this pattern. And it also allows you to use a lot of appropriate  words like go down or wee or oh, go, so there's lots of things that can go along with that. Even simpler, a small knob puzzle like right here if I were to control the environment with the puzzle,  I would dump all the pieces out, but I would hold the pieces.

So I think where I've seen people try and maybe not have as much success is they dump the pieces out in front of their child, and their child just starts doing the puzzle, and they might say, Oh, puzzle or. in or oh and the child's just not repeating because they're just too busy putting those pieces in, right?

So again, communication is a social thing. So in order to help create that, I will hold all the pieces and I'll put one out at a time.  And so the child will, I'll say, put in, and they might say, in,  and they might not repeat me at all, to be honest, but I'm going to keep modeling that that simple language.

In, and I let them do it, and then I hold up another one. In, in,  hold up another one,  in, and and in may not be your word, okay, that's just an example, it might be peace, it might be more, it might be please, depends on if you're really getting specific or it's more general requesting at that point but the important thing is Every time they get to an opportunity to model or echo you and do what you've modeled, which is creating that pattern. 

So puzzles are really nice for that because they have so many pieces. Then you have the cause and effect toys here, which we see a lot with toddlers or older infants. And, this toy may seem childish, but if you have a, an early communicator who's maybe like three, four even, this can still be a really good toy to elicit that language.

You put all the pieces down and again to control it, I might block. Three of them with my hand and just like ready or even all of them like push and then they say push and then I let them do the one button and then it's so funny.  And so you can.  Both model language at the request, but then you can model an expressive response as well COW!

Cool,  and then they press again, COW! Or horse, sheep, chicken, whatever it is. These toys are really good for both the requesting aspect and modeling that tact. What is it? Or just yay! Peek a boo! Whatever it is. And again, that's exciting, that's engaging, and that's when your kids are going to really remember that language because it means something and it was fun.

So to sum this up, it's really anything that you can do that's repetitive. Any type of activity that lends itself well to, doing over and over again. And if you happen to have a child who's on the spectrum, which I know that's not necessarily everyone, but if you have a child on the spectrum, they probably enjoy repetition anyway, and they probably like to do a lot of the same things over and over.

And Perfect. We'll just add communication to that, right? And just a side, caveat, I know, too, some of these kids might have echolalia, or language that they repeat over and over, either in the situation or it could be delayed and much later. So echolalia,  though, can be the beginning of it.

Yeah. A lot of language. This is how they're processing it and saying it. And so we just want to give them something meaningful if they are going to be echoing and they are going to be repeating that it's something that they can actually use functionally. And it's not just something that plays like a loop in their brain, but doesn't apply to anything,  which often like movies, videos, things like that is tends to be what they will repeat.

And that's fine. But  adding in these. phrases in these words during play is just helpful because it's more functional.

Okay, so let's say you, you do this, you've got toys, you're sitting by your child, you're, you're interacting, you're working on it. What's the goal? What are you looking for in this situation?  Overall, over time, you're looking that you're doing less prompting, and they're doing more independent labeling or requesting.

Again, up front, you're saying it over and over, and you're having them repeat you, or, try to repeat you. And then, you start to back off, because they're starting to pick up on it on their own. And as you see that,  that's how you know this is working. They are growing in their communication, and they're starting to do these things on their own. 

You might notice expanded phrases. They used to just say Go, but now they're saying, Look, go, or look, I go, or something like that. So those expanded phrases will come from this as well. Also more consistent phrases. You might see them using and even overgeneralizing a term. which is very common in early language learning.

So it's not such a bad thing to see that because you can shape it into what it's supposed to be. So like my daughter she, we have goldfish out in our, we have a Koi pond, but we don't actually have Koi in it. We have goldfish that are growing. And so we talk about that. And so she thinks all fish now are goldfish, which makes sense, right?

Cause that's what she sees. So she'll see,  Finding Nemo or Finding Dory and she'll say goldfish. And so I'll say, oh yes,  clownfish or oh yes, angelfish or whatever. And so that's me modeling an expansion of language and helping her consistent word or consistent phrase just become something more accurate, which is the next point.

And that just comes with time and practice. That's the, that just shows that their brain is working and it's processing and it's figuring things out. So that is, if you start to see those things when you're playing with your child, then you know, hey, what we're doing is really helping and really working.

Okay. So that is Early  communication during play in a nutshell. I think in our resources, I included a video link.  It's an example of a therapist showing, I believe a grandma, how to do this exact thing with Her grandson and just how to label what she's doing. And if nothing else, if even if they aren't ready to repeat you or say words, or they are a non speaking child right now you can still work on them saying sounds or.

Or using a visual to request an AAC device, or even just referencing you. So your child might be at the point where it's like, they can't say go, but every time they want the car to go, they look towards it or they look towards you. That's still a form of social communication because they're realizing I need you.

To make this work, right? And that's a huge step. So looking at you and referencing you is a type of request, right? I need you. I need you to let me push this button and make the cars go. Be, be encouraged that you can do this at every level. It doesn't have to be  Verbal vocal language, but it can still be communication.

Okay,  so there is a little difference So now let's look at social communication during games. So this is a are probably a little bit older group who are capable of, playing a game or sitting down and attending to something a little bit longer. And during these activities, you can really promote the concepts of turn taking, waiting,  following directions, Teaching how to read cues.

That's something that typical adults can't even do half the time. Read the room and read people's body language. That is, that can be a really hard skill for anyone. So being able to model that and teach it during during games is really beneficial. And also paying attention to others actions and what they might mean that nonverbal communication and being able to draw some some meaning from that and respond accordingly.

And then. Winning and losing, right? So important to know how to win  and lose graciously and without it being a huge meltdown or frustrating experience as we know that it so easily can be for anyone. I'm a competitive person, so hey, I don't like to lose when I play a game either. But, I will not Chuck the game pieces across the room.

It's learning the appropriate ways to do these things. Okay. So examples. So during a game, you're just going to model, model all of these things. All learning starts with seeing someone else do it first and, oh, sorry, my TV just came on. Can you guys hear that? If you can, I'll go pause it.

If not, I will continue.

Okay. So during games, model the expected communicate communication behaviors. You're playing this game and maybe the child doesn't know how they're supposed to act and they're just, anticipating, what you're going to do. So you're literally just showing, Hey this is what we're going to do when we play this game.

And you're going to label your action. So it's my turn. I'm going to move my piece. I rolled five, one, two, three, four, five.  And just thinking out loud, instead of just doing it and then letting the child then take their turn and maybe not know what to do, you are teaching through your turn, and you're letting them know the expectation by doing that.

You might also have to front load communication goals explicitly. So sometimes during games we just have to straight up teach exactly what's expected. A lot of kids just need that black and white just tell me what to do, right? You might have to say, hey, We're going to take a game that requires us to take, or we're going to play a game that requires us to take turns, okay?

So when we when it's my turn, I'm going to say my turn and I'm going to do this.  When it's your turn,  you get to say my turn and you get to do this, okay? So that is just front loading by telling them the rules from the very beginning. That way when you model it, when you teach it, it's not going to catch them off guard or be surprising, right?

You may even make a checklist for your older children that are able to understand. So here are the things that we do during a game. We we keep our hands to ourselves and wait our turn. We say my turn. We only touch our piece. We You know, we say kind words, something like that. So just going through that ahead of time and letting kids know the expectation and then, and I think this is huge use visuals to prompt those things that we just talked about.

So many times, and if you have listened to any of my webinars and master classes like this is I am always going to say use visuals. How can you incorporate visuals? What are you doing to show the child what's expected of them? Of course, I'm going to say that here, too. So I have made like my turn cards, your turn cards, wait cards, and literally have those out as part of the game and say, Hey, when the, when it's my turn, you're going to wait, so the wait card might be in front of you, and the my turn card might be in front of me, so that the child knows that's their visual cue that I need to wait, but then when I'm done we'll switch, I'll put the wait card in front of me, and I'll put the my turn card in front of you, and the child knows oh, it's my turn, I get to go, so you know,  And if you have multiple kids, that's really helpful too.

You might have one my turn card and it just travels around the circle. Like when it's in front of you, it's your turn, you get to go. If it's not in front of you, you're waiting. So that's something that you can teach. That's really appropriate. And  also I've noticed that some kids, excuse me,  some kids will do fine when it's their turn, they'll completely attend.

But then when it's  everyone else's turn, they're like, looking around because it's boring to wait. So try to engage them still with those with that conversation or by, by labeling what the other people are doing too. So Oh, look Johnny is moving his blue piece or, Oh my goodness, Sarah.

Roll the six or she got double. So try to still keep those kids engaged, even when it's not their turn.

Another really great thing that you can do during games is teach feelings and emotions. And you just want to acknowledge that the emotions that they might be feeling to normalize that losing or winning and teach the perspective taking. I might, and I think it's really, it's important to put yourself on the same level with kids when you're expecting these things of them and they're becoming vulnerable.

If we're expecting them to be super vulnerable and talk about how they're feeling or, express their feelings that, but we're not willing to do that's, it's probably not going to work, we have to meet them where they are, just like we did in the early communication through play, like you're joining them.

In their space. So  it would be really important for me to be like, Oh man, I lost a turn. That's a bummer, but it's fine. I'll get to go again, or if you're playing, sorry somebody stole my piece. That's so frustrating because now I have to, I have to get, try to get someone else's piece or I have to start all over, so modeling that language of. 

Even being frustrated or disappointed, but also showing like It's okay, it's part of the game, and I'm going to try to get it next time. You might also teach that perspective taking when it's happening with someone else. Oh, wow, look look what so and so just did, in their turn.

They probably are really excited because they got to, have two turns in a row or man, they're probably pretty bummed because they just lost a hundred dollars, of play money in the game because they had to pay, pay the banker or whatever. So it's just, again, you can really label feelings.

You can model appropriate use of feelings and model perspective taking. How do you think your friend feels when they lose a turn? Probably not great. So we probably shouldn't laugh or jump up and down and get excited, right? Because we're winning and they're losing, right? We just need to be like, oh man, I'm sorry.

Let's keep going. I know that's easier said than done, but definitely just worth trying.  And so then overall, what other activities can we continue to build communication? And just think about it, because all, every kid is different, and this is where, if you  are thinking about activities that you already do with your kid, and you want to pop in the chat what you do, and how you're already building communication, or maybe you're getting ideas from this presentation of how you can apply some of these things to games and activities go ahead and put those ideas in, or maybe you have a question.

And in a few minutes we'll look at those and try to answer those. So it might be something as simple as shopping. So maybe you're going to the grocery store or to another store and it's like your child could just wander around and they, or they could just follow you. Or you can make it an opportunity to build functional communication.

So oh, there's the there are the cans. I need green beans. Put in the cart. Oh, I need maple syrup. Put in the cart. Oh, look, there's bread. Put in. And maybe they'll say the cart, so again, you can work on creating those patterns and modeling language, even when you're shopping. I have a picture here of a couple kids playing video games because of course that is something that a lot of our kids are interested in right and it's hard because when it's a one person game or they're playing online.

It's really hard to encourage that social communication, because they're engaged. In their own world, right? They're playing against the computer. They're playing against themselves. Maybe they have players that are playing in a different place than them, but they're able to communicate with them.

That's, that's not so bad, maybe, because there's some communication there. But if they're just playing against themselves, that can definitely be hard to create communication. So you may have to try to encourage a game every once in a while where, there's two players or you're doing something together.

So you can model things like Oh, I'm going up or, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to catch up with you. I'm going to beat you. I'm going to, all of that language. Need to plug in my computer real quick. Okay.  So yeah, being able to even use those opportunities. The high school classroom that I help in sometimes and I've worked in here, they like to play the Wii during their fun time.

If they've earned it or they just have some downtime, they'll get on the Wii. And so that's a lot of fun because we'll intentionally play the game together. And really work on that good attitude, being a not being a sore loser, being a, a pleasant winner, and being able to congratulate people even if, they're not the winner.

All of those things. Also taking turns choosing which game to play, and being able to be okay that it wasn't necessarily the one that you wanted, right? You can even model Petitioning for what you want. Oh, it's your friend's turn to pick, but it's okay to still say, hey, you should pick that one.

You should pick that one. And if they do, hey, you just learned how to communicate what you want and someone listened to you. And if they don't pick what you want, then learning, it's okay. I'll get to pick during my turn, so those are all things you can work on as well. What about at mealtimes?

There are obviously multiple opportunities in a day to have a meal or to eat. And so this is a great time to create a pattern of communication. And pass the whatever, or more please, or scoop it, or take a bite. All of those phrases that you can model and do consistently are really helpful.

And you might feel silly if you're sitting there. With a five year old and you're constantly just I'm taking a bite.

I'm taking a bite. It might feel a little silly to you. But what you're really doing is valuable because you're creating consistency and predictability for your child and they understand what's expected then and they understand some of the words that they can start saying, right? Sometimes we just have to be really intentional and do things that are a little bit out of our comfort zone or a little bit just feel unnatural.

But you're doing it so that it becomes natural, if that makes sense, and it doesn't have to be something that you. Always plan for but it just becomes something that is a part of the scenario because that's what how you communicate in that situation.

Okay, so overall tips. Just remember, you need to set up the environment for play. You're still following their lead, but you're looking in the activities and the toys that they're doing like how can I set this up so that they need to communicate with me or so that I can join them and build these patterns.

Always model language. Model whatever form of communication that your child needs to use. Visuals, verbals sign, whatever it is. You're going to model that for them.  You're going to create that pattern that is easy for them to replicate. And also,  Is possible to generalize. So if I can learn that a car goes down the track look, go down, right?

Then I can apply that to when it's time to go to the park and go down the slide,  look, you go down. Or when, trying to think of another example, you're playing a game. A computer game and, something drops and it's oh look, it goes down. You want to use that common language that will generalize to multiple situations.

Cause that also will help them to learn faster. And make it fun and functional. If it's not fun, they're not going to do it. And functional has a purpose. So a lot of times too our kids they'll want to play with things maybe not so appropriately or maybe they have a little bit of repetitive behavior and so they're just  spinning something or flicking something or waving something and not really doing anything functional with it.

I'm not saying that you have to work on changing a stim but you can always model. The right thing to do with that item, and make it more functional for them because there's nothing that says that they wouldn't that behavior couldn't be shaped or, there's times where they might stand, but then there's other times where they're going to use an item functionally.

And I've said this, but I'll, I'll hone it in. Always be flexible and intentional. As they change their interest during play you go the direction they're going. If you try to force something that they're done with or, they're over it, then they're probably, you're probably going to lose them, right?

So okay, I played with cars. We did four repetitions, right? I'm done with cars. I'm going to go over to the ball. Okay, create this, start creating a pattern with the ball. That's something you can easily control, roll it, throw it, catch it, whatever it is. And be intentional in that. 

I always try to think  like whoever it is I'm teaching. So I have to connect with them at their level first so that I know them and I'm able to try to see the world the way that they see it the best that I can as someone who's not them, right? And, but that helps me to be able to anticipate what they're going to do or what they're going to say.

And so I can prompt based on that. And I can be very intentional in planning my language and my actions based on that. So connect, follow their lead, be flexible, and then always be intentional. All right, so  just a real quick plug and discussion for our Autism 360 program.

If you don't really know what it is at least in the Australian market, we are able to work one on one with parents based on goals that the child needs to work on. So I am a coach, and so I can talk about this from my perspective or I think we're a key worker now. And so working with parents specifically on things that they know that they need help teaching their child.

Hey, I want to teach my child how to communicate more during play. How can we do it? We can talk about that one on one with this program. We can also set SMART goals. Hey, I'm concerned about my child's fine motor skills. Okay, let's set a SMART goal and let's address it.  We also do periodic reviews on progress and recalibrate the program where needed and change things up as we go.

So again, being flexible. What to know, it's not for everyone. You really have to have time and be willing to dedicate  yourself and efforts to be able to follow the program. It's not, just like most things, it's not something you can just do here and there and expect great results. Awesome results, right?

You have to be consistent, you have to be all in.  And it's not an online course. In our program, you work virtually with someone, a qualified practitioner.  Is more personal than  just watching something on your computer or on your screen. Some benefits.  You learn how to become a great advocate for your child, not just at home, but in your community and in the environments where they are, such as school, you're able to identify opportunities And learn strategies.

So just like I modeled how you would build communication and then you transfer that to your child, we in this program as practitioners also try to model things and walk through things with the parents we work with so that they can then apply those things on their own and while being supported regularly.

Some of you may already have access to the app. That may be how you are on this master class session, but that is part of the program and you're really likely at the end to see some real tangible progress if you're all in. I've had parents that I've worked with. I said I started in December 2020. 

I have ones that I still work with from 2021, because they've just learned so much and seen the benefit of it that now, their child is growing from, I've had some start when they were two, three, and they're now like five. And so they've gone through so many stages of communication and of behavior.

And so we've been able to walk together through that and take things as they come. So that's cool things about this program. If you did want to know more. Somebody there is always available to explain to give insight, and there is a QR code I'll leave up for a few seconds if you did want to look it up and see in the United States, it's a little bit different how the program might work, but there are still options available in the U.S. as well and obviously I'm here in the U. S. But I work with some awesome clients in Australia, so it's pretty cool