Autism: Understanding the Nine Non-Verbal Cues
Strategies for reading new information. (Video at the end!)
My son Jack was diagnosed with autism when he was eighteen months old.
The first few signs were a significant language delay, coupled with an inability to connect with others around him. After intensive speech therapy and integrated preschool, he started putting words together when he was around four.
Jack is twenty now. He attends a supported program and lives in an apartment on his own. Although his expressive language has come a very long way, he still struggles with understanding what we call non-verbal cues: conveying information without language.
There are nine total non-verbal cues we use to communicate:
Facial expressions
Gestures
Paralinguistics (loudness or tone of voice)