Activities that build communication, step by step

Author : Able Minds ABA | Published On : 07 Sep 2026

Search for autism communication activities and you get lists of fifty. Flashcards, sensory bins, bubble play, turn-taking games, picture cards, singing. All of it plausible, none of it ordered, and no indication of which to start with or why any of it works.

The ordering is the part that matters. Communication develops in a rough sequence, and an activity aimed two stages ahead of where a child currently is will feel like failure to everybody involved. So this is fewer activities, arranged by what they are actually for.

Stage one: getting the exchange going at all

Before words there has to be back-and-forth. A child who does not yet expect a response from another person has nothing for words to attach to, which is why this stage comes first even though it looks the least like communication practice.

The activity is anything that creates a predictable pattern with a pause in it. Rolling a ball back and forth. Peekaboo. Stacking blocks, one each. Bubbles, where you blow, then wait, holding the wand.

The pause is the whole exercise. Set up the pattern three or four times so the child knows what comes next, then stop and look expectant. Anything the child does to restart it counts: a look, a reach, a sound, pushing your hand. That is a turn, and responding to it immediately teaches that their behavior makes something happen.

Stage two: asking for things that already matter

The mistake here is choosing the material. A child works much harder to ask for something they actually want than for a labeled picture of an apple.

So use what they already reach for. A favorite snack, a wind-up toy, the tablet, being lifted up. Hold it, wait, respond to any attempt to ask.

Two adjustments make this work better. Put desirable things in view but out of reach, so there is a reason to ask several times a day rather than once in a session. And do it in short bursts throughout the day rather than a twenty minute block, because five two-minute opportunities beat one long one and neither of you gets tired.

Whatever the child produces gets the item straight away. An approximation counts. The lesson is that asking works.

Stage three: commenting, not just requesting

Requesting is easier than commenting, and plenty of children get stuck in the first without moving to the second. Asking for a cup gets you a cup. Pointing at a plane gets you nothing except somebody else looking at the plane, which is the whole point and a harder thing to teach.

The activities that build this are joint attention activities. Looking at a book together and pointing at things with no question attached. Watching something out of a window and saying what it is. Bringing an object over to show rather than to be opened.

The parent's job here is to model rather than to quiz. "Bird." Pause. Look at the child. Look back at the bird. Rapid-fire questions turn the moment into a test, and testing suppresses exactly the behavior you are trying to encourage.

Which of these to pick, for your child, now, is the question a list cannot answer, and it is worth asking whoever holds the data. Provider material is a reasonable starting point, and Able Minds ABA, Maryland and others publish their own, but the selection should come from someone who knows the child.

Stage four: stretching what is already there

Once single words are reliable, the useful move is to add one element rather than several. "Cup" becomes "want cup". "More" becomes "more bubbles". Repeat back the extended version rather than requiring it.

Singing works unusually well here, because the melody carries the structure and a familiar song leaves a gap the child can fill. Stopping one word short of the end of a line is a standard trick and an effective one. Where speech is the main concern, the professional body for speech-language pathologists sets out what that discipline covers, and an analyst can say which stage a child is currently working in.

One caution about expectations. Nobody can tell you what a child will be doing in six months. What is reliable is the direction: the exchange comes before the request, the request before the comment, the comment before the sentence, and every stage is built in ordinary moments rather than formal practice.

Which is the encouraging part. The kitchen counter, the window, the ball on the floor and the last word of a song are the whole toolkit, and none of it needs buying.