Bridging the Gap recently conducted an exclusive caregiver training session titled “Connect, Communicate, and Grow: Unlock your Child’s Communication Skills” designed to help parents and caregivers better understand and support their child’s communication development.
Led by Suet Leng, together with Speech and Language Therapists Siti and Sellam, the session explored what communication means, how children develop communication skills and practical ways parents can support their child’s communication at home.
The session highlighted an important reminder: “Communication is more than spoken words”. Children communicate in many ways, including through gestures, facial expressions, sounds, body movements, eye gaze, and other behaviors. Recognizing these communication attempts can help parents better understand what their child is trying to express and create more opportunities for meaningful interaction.
What is Communication and Why is it Important?
Communication is how we express our needs, wants, thoughts, feelings, and ideas and connect with the people around us. While spoken language is one form of communication, children may use many ways to communicate, especially when their speech and language skills are still developing.
For children with developmental delays, communication may develop at a different pace. A child may communicate by pointing, reaching, making sounds, looking towards something they want, or guiding an adult towards an object or activity. These are all meaningful communication attempts.
Understanding and responding to these attempts is important because communication supports more than just language development. It helps children participate in daily routines, build relationships, express their needs, develop independence, and engage more meaningfully with others.
Understanding Your Child’s Communication Development
During the session, parents were introduced to the communication pyramid, which provided an overview of the different skills that contribute to a child’s ability to communicate.
Parents first reflected on the question: What type of communicator is your child? Own Agenda, Requestor, Early Communicator, and Partner.
Understanding these types can help parents recognize how their child is currently communicating and identify meaningful opportunities to support the next steps in their communication journey.
1. Own Agenda Stage
At the Own Agenda stage, a child may be more focused on their own interests and activities and may not yet consistently seek interaction with others. However, they are still communicating through their actions, movements, sounds, or behaviours.
Parents can support their child by observing what interests them, joining in their activities, and creating opportunities for shared interaction without placing pressure on the child to respond.
2. Requester Stage
At the Requester stage, children begin to understand that they can communicate with others to get their needs and wants met. They may request a favourite toy, food, activity, or help using gestures, sounds, words, or other forms of communication.
Parents can encourage these skills by offering choices, creating opportunities for their child to request something, and giving them enough time to communicate instead of immediately anticipating their needs.
3. Early Communicator Stage
At the Early Communicator stage, children begin communicating for a wider range of reasons. They may start to draw someone’s attention, share an interest, respond to others, or take part in simple back-and-forth interactions.
Parents can build on these skills by following their child’s interests, imitating their actions or sounds, encouraging turn-taking, and responding positively to their communication attempts.
4. Partner Stage
At the Partner stage, children are becoming more consistent and purposeful communicators. They may communicate for different reasons, participate in longer interactions, and engage more actively with communication partners.
Parents can continue supporting their child’s communication by expanding on what their child says or communicates, introducing new vocabulary, encouraging back-and-forth exchanges, and creating opportunities for communication across different daily routines and environments.
Supporting Communication at Home
Communication development does not only happen during therapy sessions. Everyday routines and play can provide valuable opportunities for children to practise communicating.
Here are some simple ways parents and caregivers can encourage communication at home:
1. Follow Your Child’s Interests
Join your child in activities that they enjoy. When children are engaged in something meaningful to them, they may be more motivated to interact and communicate.
2. Give Your Child Time to Respond
Give your child a moment to process what has been said and communicate their response. A short pause can create an opportunity for them to initiate or continue an interaction.
3. Respond to All Communication Attempts
Communication does not always involve words. A gesture, sound, facial expression, eye gaze, or movement can also carry meaning. Responding to these attempts lets your child know that their communication has been noticed and understood.
4. Offer Choices
Giving your child simple choices can encourage purposeful communication. For example, instead of asking an open-ended question, offer two options such as, “Do you want apple or banana?” and allow your child to indicate their choice.
5. Encourage Turn-Taking
Simple games, songs, and play activities can help children practise taking turns and staying engaged with another person. These everyday interactions can gradually build foundations for meaningful conversations.
6. Use Simple and Meaningful Language
Use words and phrases that match your child’s current level of understanding. Keeping language simple and connected to what your child is doing can make it easier for them to understand and participate.
Learning Together Through Breakout Discussions
To help parents apply what they had learned, participants were divided into smaller breakout groups to discuss their child’s communication development.
Parents had the opportunity to reflect on which communication stage their child may currently be in and share their observations during the discussion. This encouraged parents to look beyond spoken language and consider the different ways their child communicates throughout everyday activities.
The discussions also provided an opportunity for parents to think about their child’s individual strengths, current communication skills, and possible goals for further development.
Most importantly, the session reminded parents that every child develops communication skills at their own pace. Understanding where a child is in their communication journey can help families provide support that is meaningful, achievable, and appropriate for their individual needs.
Every Interaction is an Opportunity to Communicate
Supporting communication is not simply about teaching a child to speak. It is about helping children express themselves, connect with others, participate in everyday activities, and feel understood.
At Bridging the Gap we believe that every child has their own unique way of communicating. By recognising these individual communication attempts and responding with patience, encouragement, and meaningful interaction, parents and caregivers can help children build confidence and develop stronger connections with the people around them.
We are grateful to all the parents who participated in the “Connect, Communicate, and Grow” session and took the time to learn, reflect, and share their experiences. Through continued collaboration between families and professionals, we can create more opportunities for children to communicate, connect, and grow.
“Every connection creates an opportunity to communicate, and every communication attempt is a step towards growth.”
Book a consultation with our experienced therapy team at Bridging the Gap for personalized guidance tailored to your child’s needs.
