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What strategies do you recommend to encourage the willingness to communicate using non-primary reinforcers in children with ASD and disabilities? Specifically, in cases of non-verbal ASD, without communication using pictograms or other alternative communication systems.

Vanessa Pera Guardiola
Vanessa Pera Guardiola
Psychiatrist. Head of the Infant-Youth Field
Sant Joan de Déu Terres de Lleida

The important thing is to reinforce any strategy used to initiate communication, as long as it is an adaptive strategy.

Emili Navarro Díez
Emili Navarro Díez
Family member of a person with ASD
Aprenem Autisme

I would recommend preparing situations in which the person with ASD has to ask for help to get something. I would prepare the environment so that they encounter some difficulty in getting what they want and the need to communicate. I would position myself close to the person so they can easily find me, or I would place the communication folder nearby so they can give me the corresponding pictogram, etc. Later, I would gradually increase the difficulty, the distance from us, and so on.

Even so, it's important to keep in mind that to be successful, you must start by using strong, primary reinforcers and gradually replace them with less powerful ones. If augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems cannot be used, real objects can be used (for example, leaving a water bottle nearby so the child can fetch it if they are thirsty), and you should never extinguish any communicative attempt; value all attempts, as the important thing is that they communicate, regardless of whether it's with pictograms or gestures.

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Vanessa Pera Guardiola
Vanessa Pera Guardiola
Psychiatrist. Head of the Infant-Youth Field
Sant Joan de Déu Terres de Lleida
Emili Navarro Díez
Emili Navarro Díez
Family member of a person with ASD
Aprenem Autisme