Without words

When we think of communication, we think of talking to one another, gesturing to different things, maybe using approximations of sign language, as well as our body language. However, the way typically developing individuals communicate can be vastly different than how people with disabilities communicate.

There are different ways to communicate rather than just talking. Babies start to communicate through crying, there has been research regarding the different sounds of crying that a child emits when they are hungry (Clarici, Travan, Accardo, De Vonderweid, & Bava, 2002). These cries cannot be classified as talking, however these babies have found a unique way to communicate their needs to their caregivers.

When children are young, they can also communicate through hitting. However, I would not suggest that a parent, teacher, or therapist should continue giving the child what they want, if the child predominantly uses hitting to communicate. When children are young, they can be taught better ways to communicate rather than through hitting. When a child gets older and they have had a history of communicating their wants and needs through hitting, it is a lot harder on parents, educators, and therapists to teach a new way of communicating.

Another type of early communication method used by children is gesturing to things they want. Gesturing is a great way to have needs met. It requires little to no effort by the child and they still get what they want. For example, a child takes their mother’s hand and goes to the kitchen. The child then points to the cookie jar and the mother proceeds to give the child a cookie. The child used gesturing and was able to get what they wanted. We use gestures in daily life by saying go over there and pointing to where we want the person to go or by saying I want *that* lottery ticket and point to the one we want.

Sign language is another great way to communicate. A stereotype about sign language is that only people who are deaf, have communicative disorders, or have a family member or client that has a communicate disorder, use this type of communication. However, we use this type of communication in daily life when we say good job by raising our thumbs or when the driver in the car beside us is doing something they are not supposed to, we show them our middle finger to say f**k you.

An alternative form of communication is using a pointing book. This is typically used by children with disabilities, until they graduate to a higher form of communication. A pointing book requires a child to simply point to a picture in the book to indicate what they want or need. If they want people to move out of their way, they can simply use the book and point to the picture of “excuse me” to the aforementioned people.

A higher level of communication than the pointing book is picture communication system (PCS), previously known as picture exchange communication system (PECS).

This is a higher level of communication since it requires more effort from the person using this assistive device. People of all ages can use a PCS book, however it will get very full and heavy quite quickly. Each picture of an action, thought, object, etc needs to be printed and laminated, then have velcro attached to them, in order to effectively use them in daily life. PCS can lead to people using vocal language (more on this in an upcoming blog).

After a person is able to use PCS well, an assistive communication app can be downloaded and used to communicate, such as Proloquo2go. A video on Proloquo2go in action is shown below. It is easier to add and remove images, it has a higher capability of how many images it can store, and it is lighter to carry than a PCS book. The only downside of using such an app would be constantly having to charge the Ipad or tablet that’s in use.

So next time, when you are thinking of communication, I hope that you will be able to remember that there are other types of communication rather than just talking!

References:

Clarici, A., Travan, L., Accardo, A., De Vonderweid, U., & Bava, A. (2002). Crying of a Newborn Child: Alarm Signal or Protocommunication? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 95(3), 752–754. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2002.95.3.752