1. Presented by: Charlene Sigman, M.S.Ed.,CCC-SLP
“How to Bring out the Extraordinary in Your Child” for Parents of Children with Social Communication Delays
Presented by:
Charlene Sigman, M.S.Ed.,CCC-SLP

2. Our Plan Together “You aren’t expected to know this!”
Happy Talkers Experience
Principles Based on Early Start Denver Model and others
Small-Group and Individual Coaching
Custom Solution for YOUR child’s needs

3. For more information, www.esdm.us
Evidence-based intervention specifically developed for very young children with autism.
Play-based intervention that fuses behavioral and developmental principles into an integrated approach.
Levels cover all areas of development and help set goals for intervention in the home and at school
For more information,
ESDM certification provided by UC Davis MIND Institute.
Happy Talkers has been training since 2013 and anticipated completion by Certification funded by County Supervisor, Measure A.

4. Introductions What I love most about my child is:
My biggest challenge with my child is:
My child’s name, age and siblings:
My name is:

5. Understanding Your Child
Autism (ASD)

6. Understanding Your Child
Social Communication Difficulties

7. Why I KNOW you have what it takes
You know your child best
You care most about your child
You are the most constant and important person in your child’s life
You are your child’s advocate
Your child is your mirror

8. 8 Sure-Fire Strategies with Your Child
PRAISE
SLOW DOWN
Get eye-to-eye
Say your child’s name before giving a direction
Know what motivates your child
Have a routine
Let them know what is going to happen and what is expected
Talk about a similar situation when they behaved appropriately
What works when your child is upset?

9. Your child will learn to communicate when they…
Pay attention to you
Find enjoyment in conversation
Copy the things that you do and say
Understand what others say
Interact with other people
Have fun!
Practice what they learn
Have structure, repetition and predictability in their life
…& when you understand your child

10. Understanding Your Child’s: Likes
Sometimes it’s clear.
OTHER TIMES you need to observe closely.
What is your child’s:
Favorite toy?
Favorite food?
Type of physical play?
Favorite person?
Favorite activity?
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Page- 3-5

11. Understanding Your Child’s: Perception of the World
Sensory Processing starts when our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin receive information from the environment.
That information is then sent to the brain, where it is processed and interpreted.
Over-sensitive children are HIGHLY stimulated by a small amount of sensation.
Under-sensitive children seek out the sensations they need (running, rocking, jumping)

12. Understanding Your Child’s: Motor Planning
Difficulty planning and carrying out movements (pedal bike, throwing and catching)
May bump into things
May play with toys in a repetitive way (easier)
May have trouble talking (coordinate mouth, tongue and voice)
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Pages 7-8

13. Understanding Your Child
Learning Style

14. Understanding Your Child’s: Learning Style
Do their memories have facts and details?
Do they learn the big picture?
How your child acquires information determines their Learning Style.

15. What type of Learner is your Child?
Rote Learners
Acquire information by memorizing
Remember numbers and letters when they are young
Remember many facts about specific topics when they are older
Can recite information word for word but often don’t understand what they are saying
Gestalt Learners
Memorize in whole chunks without comprehending the individual words.
Start talking by repeating whole sentences.
Tend to remember everything about a situation but are unable to sort out the important things from unimportant ones.

16. What type of Learner is your Child?
Visual Learners:
Learn better by seeing things than hearing them.
Hands-on learners:
Learn better by experiencing. Touching things, pressing buttons, swinging doors back and forth, etc.
Auditory Learners:
Enjoy talking and listening to others and learns best through hearing.

17. Understanding Your Child
Communication

18. It’s all about interaction!
Social interaction is the hardest.
To be successful, your child needs to respond and initiate.
One person sends a message to another person.
How do you connect with your child?
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Pages 18

19. Echolalia (Repetition of other people’s words)
Your child may repeat words they have heard, without understanding what they mean.
There are many different reasons: calming, focusing attention, practicing talking.
Good sign: communication is developing

20. Types of Echolalia
Immediate: repeat words or phrases immediately after they are heard. It is usually the last part.
Delayed: memorizes chunks of words or phrases and uses them days, weeks, months later. Usually in an emotional situation. For example, “Put it down” whenever someone upset. Knows when the words are used but not what they mean.
Mitigated: changing echoes using different tones or changing words. A good sign they are understanding!

21. Why your child is communicating Pre-intentional: your child is doing or saying things without intending them to have an effect on others.
To calm
To practice
To focus or direct themselves
To react to experiences
To reach for things
To protest or refuse
Not interacting. Avoiding by pushing hand away, turning head, crying

22. To request what they want
Why your child is communicating Intentional: Communication has a purpose of sending a message. CONTINUUM
To request what they want
Requesting for social purposes
Games with people, interacting with other children
To protest or refuse
Looking directly at you, shaking their head
Later:
responding,
greeting,
get attention,
showing,
commenting,
asking questions,
talking about events,
expressing feelings,
pretending

23. Understanding Identifying their stage Stages of Communication
Allows you to understand their current ability and know the best approach to be successful.

24. Stage of Communication depends Upon
Your child’s ability to interact with you and others
How they communicate with you and others
Why they communicate
Their understanding

25. Stage: Own Agenda
Wants to play alone and appear uninterested in the people around them.
Doesn’t understand they can affect others by sending a message to them (pre-intentional).
Interacts with you briefly and almost never with other children
Wants to do things by themselves
Looks at or reaches for what they want
Does not communicate intentionally to you
Plays in unusual ways
Make sounds to calm themselves
Cries or scream to protest
Smiles, laughs
Understands almost no words
You need to observe to know how they are feeling

26. Stage: Requester
Beginning to realize that their actions can have an effect on you!
Pulls and lead you to things
Asks you for things he needs and enjoys
Likes People Games like Tickles and Peek-a-Boo
If you pause, they may look at you or move their body to get you to keep playing
Interacts with you briefly
Uses sounds to calm or focus themselves
Echoes a few words to calm or focus themselves
Reaches for what they want
Communicates when they need something (leading you or taking your hand)
Requests that you continue a People Game (eye contact, smile, movement, sounds)
Occasionally follows familiar directions
Understands the steps in familiar routines

27. Stage: Early Communicator
Starts to use specific gestures, sounds, pictures or words to ask for things in very motivating situations (food, toys)
Social interactions last longer and are more intentional (still mainly to ask you to do things for them)
Knows they can use the same form of communication consistently in certain situations (juice or video) but still continues to pull you to ask for other things.
May echo things they hear to communicate with you.
Understands given visual cues and short, simple sentences.
Interact with you and familiar people in familiar situations
Take more turns in People Games and play for longer
Request that you continue People Games and use the same actions
Request or respond by repeating what you say (immediate echolalia)
Purposefully make requests using pics/words
Protest using the same action or word
Use body movements, gestures, words to get your attention
Understand simple, familiar sentences
Understand the names of familiar objects and people
Say “Hi” and “Bye”
Answer Yes/No, choice and “What’s that?” questions

28. Stage: Partner
More effectively communicator than children in other stages. They enjoy talking and carrying-on simple conversations and can talk about past and future.
They sometimes can’t come up with own words and rely on memorized words/phrases. They may have trouble grasping rules of conversation, may start a conversation with the same memorized sentence
They like to play with you and other children. Mostly alone because they aren’t sure what to say so they are more comfortable with physical play than structured games.
Participates in longer interactions
Plays with other children in familiar routines
Uses words or another method of communication to request, protest, greet, draw your attention to something and ask questions
Starts to use words or another method of communication to talk about past and future, express feelings and pretend
Makes up their own sentences
Has short conversations
Sometimes repairs what he says when someone doesn’t understand him
Understands the meanings of many different words
Sussman, F., & Lewis, R. (2012). More than words: A parent's guide to building interaction and language skills for children with autism spectrum disorder or social communication difficulties (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Hanen Program. Page- 38 “Partners aren’t perfect”

29. Understanding
Your Role

30. Understanding: Your Role
Depending on the way you interact with your child, your personality and your child’s personality, there are common roles parents play.
Helper/Teacher Role
Do Not Disturb Role
Mover Role
Partner Role
Cheerleader Role

31. Role: Helper/Teacher
Your child doesn’t seem to know how to do things, or isn’t able to communicate.
You want to help, which is natural
If you do things for your child, they won’t be able to show you what they can do. They may be able to do more than you expected!
Many times you will NEED to be their “Helper”. There is a way to do it…
Use the “Helper Rule” to identify when to be your child’s “Helper”
Ask once and WAIT, then ask again, adding HELP.

32. Role: Do Not Disturb
Your child doesn’t seem interested in interacting with you and rarely demands your attention.
All children need time to themselves, BUT they also need to interact.
Persist in attempts to join in. They need you, but they may get frustrated. Don’t give up! Try doing things together.

33. Role: Mover Life is busy, and so are you!
When you are trying to stay on schedule, you rush through moments when your child can be learning something.
Take an extra five minutes when your child is getting dressed or eating breakfast.
Your child needs more time to understand what is going on around them.
“Get out of the race and slow down the pace.”

34. Role: Partner
Playing games together may not teach specific skills, but your child is learning a lot from having you as their play partner.
As your child becomes a more able communicator, you don’t have to give as much direction.
Let your child lead and respond to what they do.

35. Role: Cheerleader
When you reward your child’s attempts to understand and communicate, they will want to try again!
Instead of just “Good job” use descriptive praise. Your child will know your happy but might not know what “Good job” means.
Descriptive Praise tells them exactly why, or what you are happy with “Great job, you finished your milk”! “I like how you are playing with your sister!”
Natural encouragement, “Car” “Ok, let’s play with the car!”

36. Let’s set some Communication Goals!

37. Your Goals Once we set the goals, you can address them every day!
Interaction with other people
Communicating in new ways
Communicating for new reasons
Understanding the connection between they say, and what is happening

38. Goals: Interacting with you and others
Never stop talking, showing, giving opportunities.
Teaching interaction helps your child:
Find enjoyment with others
Understands their effect on others
Communication is two-way

39. Goals: Communicating in New Ways
Pulling/leading
Using Pictures
Gestures
Sounds/Pictures/Gestures
WORDS!!!

40. Goals: Communication for New Reasons
The goal is intentional communication!
Progressing from Requesting to Social Communication to talking about Shared Interests.
Observe what your child is trying to communicate and make an opportunity for them.
Requesting is the easiest to set up:
Clear plastic bins, placement of items
Add new situations (answering questions, greeting) and help your child practice.

41. Goals: Connection between words and your child’s world
Make it MEANINGFUL to your child!
First, they need to understand words in different situations.
Don’t assume that they understand things you haven’t explained to them.

42. MORE GOALS Turns echoes into spontaneous speech
Turns gestures into signs
Turns words into phrases
Increases the variety of communication
Refuses/protests
Answers questions
Greets and says “bye”
Shifts gaze between you and object they want
Draws your attention to someone or something
Comments on things
Understands familiar words and phrases and follow simple directions

43. How to achieve our goals

44. Use what your child likes and their learning style
Rote learners: Plan daily routines and play activities that are in a particular order. Your child can memorize words and actions (letters and numbers)
Gestalt learners: Repeat whole chunks of what they hear. Your child will say exactly what you say. So, say it as they would.
Visual Learners: add visuals (gestures, facial expressions, videos, pictures) paired with words
Hands-on Learners: touching/moving/pushing buttons paired with words

45. Learn: Speech-Language Strategies
Model appropriate speech and language for your child; clear, slow and simple.
Listen attentively get eye-to-eye.
Repeat to the child what you think he is saying and add vocabulary.
Give wait time for the child to respond.
Gain eye contact prior to giving directions.
Use natural gestures to enhance what you are saying.
Give a choice of answers to questions.
Repeat, rephrase questions.

46. Learn: Own Agenda Stage
Interaction with People Games!
Make it fun to play with you!
Eye contact/imitation/turn-taking/wait…
Set up situations for intentional communication
Requests
Making Choices
Prepare them for social interaction opportunities
Taking turns (eye contact, sounds, gestures, stop and go)

47. Learn: Requester Stage
Encourages sounds or actions to continue a game
Replaces pulling and leading with gestures, pictures and sounds/words
Helps them request more things
Helps them understand the meaning of words (no need for them to talk)
Encourages them to play games with others!

48. Learn: Early Communicator Stage
Teach your child to take turns consistently with you and others
Teach your child to initiate some physical games
Help your child increase their use of gestures, signs, pictures, words to make requests in new situations (open)

49. Learn: Partner Stage
Help your child change the way they communicate. Add VARIETY!
Answer wh- questions and open-ended questions
Talk about past, future and feelings
Pretend
Help your child have conversations:
How to start and end
How to stay on topic
Explaining
Asking for clarification

50. Help your child play and communicate with others
Learn to: Give your child a reason to communicate and wait patiently.
Engineer situations for your child to communicate; objects within view and out of reach.
Use people toys; bubbles, wind-up and squeeze toys, balloons-blow it up and let it go, music boxes, jack in the box, spinning tops.
Offer things bit by bit
Give all but one
Offer least favorite things
Watch for boredom and encourage verbal communication
Do the unexpected
Keep quiet (gestures with no words)
Creative stupidity
Make things go wrong (drop something)
Pretend you don’t know where things are
Pretend something’s broken
Pretend you are “broken”

51. Learn to: Help your child make choices
Start with easy choices
Only give 2 choices and at most 3
At first, offer the favorite choice last
Later, offer the favorite choice last
Give visual cues
Yes/ No Choices: use visuals, offer what you know they want and what you know they don’t want

52. Resources