For children who prefer to communicate orally, I can work on improving speech intelligibility. The therapy approach will be tailored based on the type of speech difficulties your child has.

Language is the main way that communication occurs. We can work on building receptive and expressive language skills to increase your child’s ability to functionally communicate.

Stuttering is a form of neurodivergence as well, and as such I will always address it in a neurodiversity-affirming way, focusing on increasing communication ability and confidence rather than focusing on increasing fluency.

As a neurodiversity-affirming therapist, I will accept any form of communication as valid. However, in order for a child to be able to express everything they want to be able to say, they may need some help building up their preferred method of communication. We can explore various AAC options, including no-tech, light-tech, and high-tech options.

This is an area that is so important to address with any child, but especially a disabled child. We can work on being able to advocate about their wants, needs, likes, and dislikes; we can work on saying “no”, and we can work on having the communication skills to ensure self-determination.

Although I will not work on things such as “social skills training” or eye contact, as a neurodiversity-informed therapist, there are some pragmatic skills that I do still believe are valuable. During our sessions, we can work on skills such as perspective taking, problem solving, and learning about differences in neurotypical and neurodivergent communication styles and social skills.

I believe it is vital as my job as an autistic SLP to help foster positive autistic identity and self-acceptance during my speech/language therapy sessions. We can work on autism education from a neurodiversity-affirming standpoint, in order to instill the idea that ‘autistic’ does not mean ‘broken’, and that they should be accepted as they are.

As an Inside Out Sensory Certified SLP (in progress), I’ve learned about the importance of communication as it relates to sensory needs and self-regulation. This is something that we can work on in our speech/language therapy sessions. However, I may also recommend reaching out to an Occupational Therapist if these are your main areas of concern.

In order for your child to make progress with their communication skills, it will be vital that you as the parent (and who spends a lot more time with your child than I will) partake in the therapy. During and after each speech/language therapy session, I can include some time to teach you about how to work with your child at home.