Most parents strive to give their children all of the
independence and responsibility they can handle. Well, what if you couldn’t give your child
responsibilities and independence? What if your child avoids eye contact with
you? What if your child has no facial expressions, a tone in their voice or
physical gestures? What if they react to sights, textures, and sounds
differently? These are all early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that
parents may see early in their child’s life. Parents never want to believe that
these signs are a problem until it becomes their reality. Non-verbal
communication is one aspect of an ASD diagnosis. Throughout my research, I have
focused on the effects of language development in children with autism.
Beginning at infancy children are learning to communicate with each passing day.
However, not all children are seen developing these early verbal and non-verbal
communication skills.
According to the article, Nonverbal Thinking, Communication, Imitation, and Play Skills with some Things to Remember author Kerry Hogan explains how
communication is learned by children in stages. Children with autism may
experience these stages slower than others. There are unique ways in teaching
communication to children with autism that others may not need. Expressing
needs, gestures, joint attention, visual information, signing, and words are
all forms of communication that are taught to enhance the development of
language proficiency in children with autism. Educators and Parents are those
who help make strides in the development of language within children. It’s
vital that guardians are able to pick a meaningful and motivating form of
communication that will lead increased language proficiency within their child.
Fortunately, in today’s society,
there are several outlets that families can use to help their non-verbal
children. According to the article, The Use of Technology in Treatment of
Autism Spectrum Disorders
author Kristie Brown Lofland discusses augmentative and alternative communication
(AAC) strategies that can be used to help children express their language. This
form of technology can open up opportunities and free children from the
frustration and emotions associated with not being able to communicate their
thoughts and feelings. Each year new forms of technology are introduced in
order to benefit the non-verbal population. Desired behaviors and emotions are
now being communicated through these forms of assistive technology that are
available. Technology is becoming a new tool for education which has benefited
non-verbal autistic children with communication therapy, fine motor skills,
visual supports, life skills, social interactions and helps to increase the
independence families wish to give to their children.
Comparatively, the scholarly article
Future affective technology for autism
and emotion communication
seems to agree with the popular press in that speech is a common challenge for
children with autism. Rosalind Picard writes, “many autistic people have difficulty in producing speech and
getting it to mean what they want it to mean; they may find that their typed
speech more accurately reflects their thoughts than their spoken speech”
(3576). This shows the correlation of how important assistive technology has
helped children and adults with autism. They are able to depend on devices and
type out their emotions when they can’t find the words to communicate them or
are non-verbal. For the past several years I have had the opportunity to work
with students with autism. Some of these students range throughout the
spectrum, some of them being non-verbal. It's amazing to see how non-verbal
students are able to communicate through these new outlets that have been
introduced to our society. People don’t usually think of technology being a
form of language but in the special needs community, it’s becoming somewhat of
a norm. As a society, I believe that it’s important to be open to new forms of language
and communication, especially ones that we may not expect like technology.
