Communication in Early Intervention

This article or area is currently under construction and may only be partially complete. Please come back soon to see the finished work! (15/12/2023)

Original Editor - User Name

Top Contributors - Ewa Jaraczewska, Jess Bell and Kim Jackson  

Introduction

Motor problems in children often co-occur with communication problems. Up to 81% of children with mild to moderate functional mobility limitations are diagnosed with communication problems. This article will discuss how and why the child communicates, analyse parents' behaviour and communication style.  Additionally, the article will offer basic communication strategies the parents can immediately utilise in everyday routines.

Identifying Parent and Child Communication Styles

Identifying How Children Communicate

Children have different communication strategies starting from infancy to the age when they become verbal.

Infancy

Non-verbal Communication

• Non-verbal communication
  • eye-gaze
  • smile
  • pointing,
  • some noises that they might make,
  • grabbing
  • crying
• Stimulus–response relations (12 months of age)
  • gazes at the mother to search for cues
  • critical for an infant learning gestural communication
  • absence of sustained infant eye contact with caregivers may indicate that the infant may have language delay
• Joint attention (9-12 months of age)
  • "infant’s ability to make eye contact with another individual, shift her gaze to some stimuli and regain eye contact with the same caregiver."
  • helps in the early learning of language skills including naming. Provides a basis for cognitive development and social referencing.
  • social reinforcers (nod or a gestural expression) facilitate and maintain infant's joint attention
• Social referencing
  • "behaviour chain in which two individuals (caregiver and child) were involved in an interaction" including eye contact, gaze shift to a new stimulus, return of gaze shift to each other, altered facial cues.

Child Communication and Parent's Understanding

Understanding how the child communicates:

To help the parents understand how their child communicates, use the following strategies to make them recognise their own purpose of communication. They should complete the following exercises:

• analyse how and why they communicate
  • what did they do to communicate with others?
• start to identify similar to their own communication behaviours in their children
• start to understand and anticipate how to help their child communicate more

Understanding the parent's style of communication:

To help the parent understand understand their style of communication

Resources

• bulleted list
• x

or

1. numbered list
2. x