Communication in Early Intervention

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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.

Methods and Stages of Children's Communication

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

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.

Verbal communication

• Pointing and naming objects (12 months)
  • It involves several steps:
    • eye gaze of the person naming the object
    • determining what the person is naming
    • repeating the name in the presence of the object
    • looking back at the caregiver for confirmation

Child and Parent Styles of Communication

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 what is the child style of communication:

To help the parent understand their child style of communication, ask them to respond to the following questions:

• Is your child a very sociable child?
• Does your child have an easy back and forth conversation and communication?
• Is your child passive during conversation and communication?
• Does your child have a reluctant style of communication

Understanding what is the parent style of communication:

To better help the parent to communicate with their child, respond to the following questions:

• What kind of style does the parent have that you are trying to help?
• Do they have a passive style?
• Do they have a sociable style?

Understanding how the environment and personal feeling affect communication:

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