TEACCH Tip#21 – Communicating Beyond Requests
For many young and emerging communicators, communication begins with requesting favorite items or activities. While requesting is an important skill, communication is also about connecting with other people, sharing experiences, and getting someone’s attention.
We can support social communication by teaching language that focuses on people and actions, not just objects. Using a “person + action” approach helps individuals learn that communication can be used to engage with others, invite someone to participate, and continue enjoyable interactions.
Examples of person + action language include:
- “Mommy open”
- “Daddy pour”
- “Josie give”
- “Papa do”
This type of social language provides an important foundation for developing more complex communication skills, including conversations.
Ways to Teach Social Communication
- Choose simple action words that can be used across many activities, such as do, stop, go, give, open, help, and more.
- Model person + action language throughout the day during play, routines, and favorite activities.
- Focus on what people are doing rather than only labeling objects or preferred items.
- Use motivating activities where communication naturally happens, such as blowing bubbles, playing with toys, cooking, or building together.
- Pair spoken language with visuals, such as pictures or objects, to help support understanding.
Helpful Hints:
- Point to a visual support while saying the words, then complete the action. For example, point to a picture of “Mommy blow,” say “Mommy blow,” and then blow bubbles.
- Give the individual time to respond. Pause after modeling language to allow an opportunity for communication.
- If needed, use the activity itself to gain attention and encourage participation before offering a prompt.
- Expand what the individual says. If they say “blow,” respond with “Mommy blow” while pointing to the visual and completing the action.
- Practice the same few action words across many activities so the individual learns how words connect to social interactions.
- Respond to all attempts to communicate, including gestures, sounds, signs, pictures, and words.
Building communication is about more than getting needs met—it is about helping individuals connect, share, and engage with the people around them.
When using pictures and/or objects to help support the development of social language, be consistent in how the visuals look and are organized.
- Categorizing: most emerging communicators benefit from a simple organization of their visual supports. For example, put all of the options of people in one row and all of the actions in another row. When using the same visuals for different activities, keep the common pictures in the same location. If “go” is located at the bottom of the first column then it should be located there for all activity boards that it is used.
- The background color can also be used to support the child’s ability to categorize. Choose one background color for people and a different colored background for actions. Choose any color that works for your child but keep the color used for the person and the color used to highlight the action the same across activities.
