Some ideas to support your toddler’s social interaction and communication

Children with autism spectrum disorder likely experience less natural reward from play and other social interactions. This diminishes motivation to engage.

Children who do not tune into their parents’ communication efforts miss opportunities to develop skills, such as sharing experiences and imitation. Increased play with your child can bolster their internal motivation to play and engage with you over time, especially when they find these experiences rewarding.

Try this:

• Imitate your child’s actions, sounds, and words and encourage your child to imitate yours.

• When your child vocalizes, imitate them and provide the word for whatever they are attending to.
• Narrate what your child is doing or looking at using simple one- and two-word phrases.
• Use subtle sabotage to increase your interactions. Put toys and snacks in difficult-to-open containers to encourage your child to communicate that they need help.
• As often as possible, interact with your child at eye level so they can more easily make eye contact and respond to exaggerated facial expressions.
• Use big actions and physical play (bouncing, clapping, running) to get and sustain your child’s attention. Talk about this shared experience with excited-sounding action words.
• Increase sensory play with bathtime bubbles, songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider, or games like peek-a-boo. Pause and look excitedly at your child, waiting for your child to respond and initiate or request the activity again. Avoid play where your child watches passively, enjoying your actions but not engaging in a back-and-forth.
• Withhold high-interest toys and wait for your child to use sounds, gestures, or eye contact to ask for them. Eventually, expect eye contact and a word or gesture simultaneously. Holding interesting items at eye level can help.

Back to tips