Communication

Cues

A cue is a type of communication used by an adult to let a child know what is expected of him/her in a given situation. Cues are a type of receptive communication.

Designing and using a consistent routine is the beginning of teaching cues. Given time in this type of the routine, the child will first begin to anticipate his/her part in the routine. Given more experience with the routine, the child may begin to anticipate the routine from some part of the routine.

Touch cues are ways an adult can touch a child to communicate a desired action. For example, an adult may gently pull a child's arm upward with a grasp at the wrist to cue the child to lift arm during a dressing routine.

A sensory cues is some sensory input used to help a child anticipate an event: For example, a smell of lotion before it is applied to the child's arm or the sound of water splashing before placing the child in the bathtub.

Object cues are some concrete piece of a routine that is used to represent that routine. For example, a diaper may be an object cue for diaper changing.

When deciding what cues to use with a child, it is important to remember to select cues that the child can easily discriminate one from the other. Otherwise the cues may be confusing to the child.

Signals

Signals are movements the child uses to communicate needs, desires and feelings to adults. Signals are a form of expressive communication.

Signals may start as a behavior that the child is not intentionally using to communicate. But because an adult consistently responds to this behavior, the child begins to understand that producing this behavior causes a particular event to occur. For example, a child may inadvertently clap hands with an adult. If hand clapping is enjoyable for the child and the adult consistently responds by hand clapping with the child, the child may signal for more hand clapping by clapping the adults hand again. Signals are usually first seen within an already occurring activity. As the child becomes more sophisticated, he or she may produce the signal to initiate the activity.

Symbols

Symbols are representations of an event, action, object, person, or place that can be used to communicate about the