Facts About Functional Communication Training For Parents

By Douglas Myers


Children use the basic levels of communication. Their gestures, words and emotions are raw. They communicate about what they feel or want in their unique ways. Some of these gestures and messages are difficult to understand. This is why functional communication training for parents is so important. It helps the adults to decipher what children under their care want in order to provide.

Development and good relationship between children and their parents at the earliest age depends on how well they can communicate. For parents whose children have delayed milestones caused by such conditions as autism or ADHD, functional communication becomes even more important.

Children also need to be taught to communicate functionally. This is only possible to a small group of children considering their ages and ability to understand. However, a parent can slowly impart this knowledge to their children, albeit with a lot of patience. By teaching these children about this way of communicating, you provide them with an alternative way of making their needs and demands known. They will also be saved from frustration that arises from inability to achieve mutual understanding.

Children with challenges communicating should be handled by a speech therapist. It is the parent or guardian who alerts the pathologist. The pathologist begins by evaluating the capability of the child since each one is unique. Difficulties between children vary and their solutions will be equally diverse. The pathologist identifies the unique challenges facing your child and proposes specific solutions.

Naturally, human beings communicate using words, gestures and body language. For children with delayed milestones, the challenge is on one of these avenues. The pathologist will identify the next best alternative that will still deliver desired results. At the initial stages, the focus is to get communication going. Pathologists identify a hierarchical order in which means of communicating are arranged.

Children begin communicating by using gestures and body language. They will point at the objects they want or move the body in that direction. In other cases, they cry or are agitated while pointing in the direction. Where they do not want something, they will pull the body in the opposite direction and resist any attempt to be associated with the object. Other methods that can be used to communicate include picture exchange, sign language and adoption of customized voice output devices.

The parent or guardian needs to identify new words that will be taught to the child. Learning happens through continuous repetition. You need to combine all learning avenues like sound and gestures to make it easier to learn your desired words. Tempt the child to says or gesture the words by providing the objects in his or her surrounding.

The learning pace is slow for children with special needs and therefore requires a lot of patience. Experiment with different words since some are easy and others challenging to understand. Since each child is unique, you must appreciate this element. Do not frustrate a kid by forcing him or her to understand what is visibly difficult. It takes time to achieve desired results.




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