Ways to motivate a non verbal 3 year old to want to communicate

Hello

My little boy is going through the diagnosis process at the moment. This post relates mainly to speech therapy, we’ve been told he needs specialised speech and language therapy because he is non verbal and he is not motivated to communicate or even want to learn to. 

Has anyone else been in this position and can give me some tips and ideas on how to motivate him?

Speech and Language therapy won’t even consider us for one to one or group sessions as they say it’s pointless when he doesn’t have the foundations to want to communicate. 

Any help greatly appreciated

Thanks

Parents
  • Hi,

    I don't have any experience of this I'm sorry, this is probably a silly question but are you using a pecs system with him? Or other communication device? 

    I am sure you are already aware that behaviour can be communication as well I was just wondering if there was any way you could use something he likes or knows to encourage him, 

    Alot of autistic children start speaking later and if he is feeling pressured into speaking it may make him more reluctant to do so 

    I am sorry I'm not more helpful, but check the sections on the site maybe there is so helpful information there if not I suggest that you call the helpline they can give you more information 

  • Hello

    Thank you for your reply. We have started to use PEC’s as a form of communication but as soon as he has got to a point of making choices and selecting what he wants from his PEC’s board he lost interest. If I’m sat in front of him doing PECs he can do it but of his own accord he won’t. Our private speech and language therapist we had seemed to then drift away from PECs and not really continue with how we move forward hence why we now have a new one that we haven’t seen yet. 

    My little one is a good eater so we used food to motivate with PECS but think he got wise to that!

Reply
  • Hello

    Thank you for your reply. We have started to use PEC’s as a form of communication but as soon as he has got to a point of making choices and selecting what he wants from his PEC’s board he lost interest. If I’m sat in front of him doing PECs he can do it but of his own accord he won’t. Our private speech and language therapist we had seemed to then drift away from PECs and not really continue with how we move forward hence why we now have a new one that we haven’t seen yet. 

    My little one is a good eater so we used food to motivate with PECS but think he got wise to that!

Children
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