Improving Communication skills Ideas about the causes and treatments of Communication Deficits vary tremendously across professions and even from one professional to another within a given profession. Some authorities believe it is a good practice to teach a child to point to a picture, rather than use his voice, even when the child can speak.

Remember that your target is speech  This practice teaches the child to communicate and can be a springboard to verbal communication; however, it could also create a reliance on the use of pictures instead of speech.  Although it is advantageous to show a child that any means of communication is better than not communicating at all, it is important to relentlessly seek to reinforce speaking if the use of speech is a desired means of consistent communication.

Basic Principles  Although the approaches to the treatment of communication deficits vary tremendously, several intervention principles are common in addressing communication deficits from a behavioral perspective:

Identify physical barriers  Identification of physical barriers to speech production is necessary. Children who have hearing deficits often display speech deficits – if they can’t hear speech, they really can’t figure out how to produce it or refine it for clarity.

Consider ancillary devices  The use of ancillary communication devices or methods (the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) methodology, devices to simulate speech) may be helpful and expedient.

Don’t ignore verbal skills  However, if the child is capable of making any speech sounds, it is probably possible to teach the child to make those sounds more consistently and intentionally, with a wider range of sounds, as a means of communicating. This is the foundation for most training in "verbal behavior" skills.

Build on success continuously  The training of communication skills can be approached just like any other behavioral training process. It starts at a basic level, takes small steps that build on success, and has a developmental plan to guide the process.

Speech pathologist consultation  Obtaining advice from a speech pathologist is invaluable in terms of creating the "developmental plan" for a given child’s communication behavioral training program.

Age-appropriate performance expectations  Training in communication and other skills can be approached from the perspective of teaching the child to become more tolerant of age- appropriate performance expectations.

A Behavioral perspective  Speech is a normal performance expectation for any child over the age of 1 year, so a mental health professional can assist any child over the age of 1 in acquiring speech skills by addressing the child’s behavior (escape, avoidance) in response to attempts to teach the child communication skills.

… not “life skill” training…  The treatment provider is not teaching the child how to speak, which is a "life skill." Rather, the treatment provider is behaviorally intervening to help the child tolerate the age-appropriate expectation of learning how to speak.