Communicating with Special Needs kids

What do you really need to know about communicating with a kid with special
needs? Obviously, it depends on their disability and level of function. For kids with
medical apparatus such as a tracheotomy tube (which they breathe through) their
ability to speak is prohibited by the tube. If the kiddo has autism, their brains are
wired differently. If the kiddo has Cerebral Palsy (CP) then there are different issues.
Many factors and variables go into Special Needs Kids and their special needs!
However, sign language works for most kids as a way to communicate their wants
and needs.
When I sit down with parents for the first time, I explain that language is not just
about them telling their kid to do what they want like sit down, bring me your shoes
or go to bed. That is just half the equation. Kids want to tell you things too. They
want you to know that they are afraid of something or they dont like something or
they really love you or whatever happened in their day. So the two sides of
communication are Expressive or the expression of thoughts and ideas and
Receptive, which is understanding what someone else is trying to tell you about
their thoughts and ideas. Of course there are many aspects and variables in
communication but this is just a simple description of what happens when we try to
talk to our kids or they try to talk to us.
Receptive Language starts from in utero meaning that once the kid has ears and
connections, that little bun in the oven has the ability to hear you. That is when
language acquisition starts. From 23 to 27 weeks of pregnancy, an unborn human
can begin to acquire language. What happens in the case of babies who are deaf in
utero is significantly different. And any baby that cannot manage the connections

between sound and processing that sound in the brain has a similar experience a
delay in language acquisition.
What is Language Acquisition?
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as
well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
Friederici, AD. (Oct 2011). "The brain basis of language processing: from structure to function". Physiol Rev 91 (4): 1357
92.doi:10.1152/physrev.00006.2011. PMID 22013214.

There are several theories on how this happens and all you need to do is to google
language acquisition and there is so much information you could drown yourself in
it! For now, we will view this as the ability to take up a first language. Without a
first language, a second is not possible. The human brain does seem to have limits
in this area.
The brain uses language to hang concepts on and link ideas together. Without this
scaffold, learning is nearly impossible. For example, when we learn something new
about cows, we may already know that cows give milk, they moo, they have 4 legs.
What we might not know is that they have 4 stomachs. When we are exposed to
new information about a topic we are already familiar with, we just add it to the
concept of that topic. If we didnt have language, we wouldnt be able to link the
process of obtaining milk with the processing of grass that cows use for their
nutrition. And we wouldnt be able to explain how milk comes from cows. So, the
brain organizes new information by linking it to something it already knows such
as cows make milk, they eat grass, they have 4 legs and it takes 4 stomachs to
process the green leafy grass they typically are fed. This ability to organize new

information is critical in language development and language acquisition. The

ability to link or associate information creating a bigger or deeper understanding of
something is what language helps with.

Parents often ask me when their child will speak. I try to refocus parents on the
concept that any language is a good language. The most important aspect of
language is acquiring it. When we use sign as a way to supplement verbal
communication, we use many different parts of the brain to process language.
When we focus on speech, we often spend a great deal of time focusing on the
physical ability to speak and not on language. When we incorporate sign language,
speech, verbal communication, pictures, and other methods, we are providing a
larger way to acquire language.