Our quick tips may help you to communicate more effectively with an autistic person, whether it’s your child, pupil, colleague or friend.
Getting and keeping their attention
Always use their name at the beginning so that they know you are talking to them.
Make sure they are paying attention before you ask a question or give an instruction. The signs that someone is paying attention will be different for different people.
Use their hobbies and interests, or the activity they are currently doing, to engage them.
Processing information
An autistic person can find it difficult to filter out the less important information. If there is too much information, it can lead to ‘overload’, where no further information can be processed. To help:
say less and say it slowly
use specific keywords, repeating and stressing them
pause between words and phrases to give the person time to process what you’ve said, and to give them a chance to think of a respons...