Advice & Support for:
Understanding an autistic person’s communication
Communication happens when one person sends a message to another person. This can be verbally or non-verbally. Interaction happens when two people respond to one another – two-way communication.
Most autistic people experience difficulty with:
- interacting with others
- initiating interactions, responding to others, or using interaction to show people things or to be sociable
- understanding and relating to other people
- taking part in everyday family, school, work and social life. These can be harder.
Non-verbal communication
Some autistic children are delayed in their use of language, and some autistic adults don’t use speech. In those cases, other methods of communication need to be established.
An autistic person may appear not to hear what you say to them, not respond to their name, or appear indifferent to any attempts you make to communicate.
They may use some of the following to communicate with you:
- gestures
- crying
- taking your hand to the object they want
- looking at the object they want
- reaching