Autistic Communication and Language Choices

First off, let's define communication, and language. Communication is any message being sent or received from one person to another. There's nonverbal communication, such as body language, facial expressions, and miming, and there's verbal communication, which can be sounds like "oh! woah! and ow!" or, spoken language. Verbal communication also includes nuances such as tone of voice, and voice volume. So, communication is a message being sent and received either verbally or nonverbally. It is not necessarily language. Especially when it comes to autistic people, behaviors are a form of communication? Let's see how good your interpretation of behavioral communications are:

You are talking to someone, and they turn to leave.

Your kid touches the stove and starts crying.

A touchdown is made, and the crowd cheers and claps.


Messages communicated:
"I'm done talking to you."
"That hurt!"
"Go team!"


See? You innately understand behavioral communication. Keep that in mind when talking to an autistic person, or otherwise interacting with them.


Now, language is generally what we humans use to communicate. Language is an encoded message, that is delivered, and interpreted based on a standardized set of rules. This can be verbal, nonverbal as well. ASL, American Sign Language- or really, any official sign language- is a nonverbal language. English, and many other languages, can be written down, and delivered nonverbally. And, of course, verbally there's any number of languages: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Chinese, Mandarin, Arabic, Hawaiian... the list goes on and on and on.

For nonverbal autistics, there are a number of choices for communication. ASL can be taught, as we are doing with Ace, enabling the individual to develop language skills. Sometimes, autistics can have poor fine motor control, so ASL isn't the best option for them. That's ok too. Ace is blessed with advanced fine motor control, so we take advantage of that.

There are also communication systems to help autistics communicate. There are Augmented and Assistive Communication systems (AAC) where an autistic might have an IPad that they can type on, or tap pictures, that will then vocalize the message the individual chooses.

 There's the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in which the child flips through cards with pictures/words (developmentally appropriate) to show what they want to communicate. PECS is particularly popular at the toddler and elementary ages.

There's also Rapid Prompting Method, in which the individual can point to a chart showing the ABC's and spell out what they want to say- or, in the case of younger kids, point to pictures that show what they want, similar to the younger PECS, without the exchange of the picture.

And, of course, there is behavior. Crying, clapping, turning away, and dragging people where you want them, are all methods of communications an autistic person may use innately.

If an autistic does sign, please try and communicate with them through sign. Do not insist that they talk verbally. If they talk verbally- great! But ASL IS a legitimate language, and if it works, it works. If you don't know ASL yourself, ask the individual's mom/partner/friend/interpreter (most autistic's won't have an interpreter on hand though) to translate the autistic's responses for you. Remember, though it is definitely fun to communicate in the same language, unless told differently, just because they are using ASL, does not mean that they are not hearing. You can talk to them, as you would anyone else, and they are able to hear, and understand. They'll just answer back in ASL- which is where the interpreter will be useful- so that you will know what they are saying back to you!