978-1572305441

William 93
sation and to teach them linguistic devices to keep the conversation going.
It’s important to first set the parameters of the conversation. Practicing
has to be a natural part of everyday life, not seen as a time for
“therapy.” The conversation must be fun so the child sees the value of
engaging in social interchange through conversation, and it should not
be coercive but part of the natural flow of the day’s routine. The conversation
is best carried out by parents, teachers, or older siblings who can
understand the new rules of the game or that the language game will
have to be played at first by somebody else’s rules. It is essential, as my
conversation with William demonstrates, that the context be front and
center in any conversation with a child with ASD. Techniques to set the
conversational context can be established by asking about common
events, practicing conversations that might occur on a routine basis
with typical children, and talking about a child’s special interests. This
ensures that a common context is established that allows the speaker
and listener to build shared meaning. Discussing common events like
finding out what happened at school, how people were feeling, what
somebody’s behavior was like are especially helpful. It’s also useful to
make the conversations functional. What conversational abilities does
one need to survive in the world, to use change to buy things at the
store, to ask for directions, and so on? Practicing going to the store or
using the bus can be excellent opportunities to teach these skills and to
learn certain routines. Using visual aids can also be helpful—books,
pictures, or the TV can be a useful way of facilitating communication
and of initiating a conversation.
It is also very effective to initiate a conversation on the child’s favorite
topic. This will make the context abundantly clear and tends to
elicit the most speech and the most appropriate social skills. I try to engage
in the conversation on the child’s terms for a while but then steer it
toward other, more appropriate topics like what happened at school,
what it is about a sibling that bugs him the most, and so on. This redirection
can be difficult, and it sometimes feels like setting up signposts
that are ignored consistently. But persistence eventually pays off.
The key to creating a common context is to realize that sometimes
what’s being said by the child with ASD is not always what is meant. It’s
that imaginative leap to the context that the child with ASD is operating
from that is often required to make sure the conversation makes sense. I
always try to clarify with the child an ambiguous context to make sure
we’re speaking with a common frame of reference: “Are we talking