When a child is unable to speak or cannot access their words all of the time, parents may rely on asking yes and no questions to figure out what their child is trying to communicate. Many children with autism spectrum disorder and other neurodiverse profiles may struggle to understand and respond to these types of questions, further complicating communication interactions. How do parents help their child with autism to understand and answer yes and no questions more successfully? Let’s break it down into steps.
Use Visual Support for Yes & No
Many children benefit from visual support to help them understand questions, and to know which words to use to respond to those questions. When you ask your child a yes/no question, consider using gestures like pointing or showing items while you ask. This helps your child understand what you are asking about. Using a body movement like a head nod or thumbs up for yes and a head shake or thumbs down for no is also important to offer your child information on what the answer to the question should be. These visual support gestures are hints that can be faded over time, once your child learns to respond consistently on their own. Check out the yes/no question guide at the end of this post to see how these visuals can be added to practice time to help your child realize success early on in their learning.
Model Questions & Responses
There are many ways to say yes or no. Your family can model yes/no questions and answers in your daily interactions so that your child can see this important skill in action, demonstrated by skilled communicators. Model many ways to answer these questions , and consider combining visual ways to respond (responses your child can see) with spoken ways to respond, such as through oral speech or an AAC device. Some yes responses to model include: nodding your head up and down, giving a thumbs up, and saying “yes”, “yeah”, or “yep” with your spoken words or an AAC system. Some no responses to model include: shaking your head side to side, fiving a thumbs down, and saying “no”, “nah”, or “nope” with your spoken words or an AAC system. When you model, be “big” and interesting to encourage your child to watch and listen and to help them understand what is important about what you’re doing. You can model like this throughout the early stages of teaching your child how to attend to and respond to yes/no questions.
Practice Simple Yes/No Question Forms
When your child is learning something new, it is helpful to start with a simple structure, and then add variety as they are successful. Start your yes/no question practice with a simple question about something you know your child is interested in and has a preference for. For example, you might start your practice offering food or toy items that you know your child loves and asking a simple question like “Do you want _______?” while holding out the item. You’ll offer lots of support when you first start practice so that your child expresses the answer right away. Check out the guide at the end of this post for examples of how to integrate support following your question to ensure an accurate response each time.
Start with Yes, Then Move to No
It is important to start yes/no question practice when you already know your child’s likely answer to the question. Kids are more engaged when they are calm and motivated, so starting with practice on questions that you know your child would answer yes to is a great first step. Stick with a simple question type as we discussed above and use a visual signal to represent yes as you practice. Once you are seeing some momentum with your child answering yes with little or no support, start working on questions that you know your child would say no to. Just as with yes, offer visual support and use simple questions at first-you can switch it up after your child gets the hang of these simple practice moments. See more information on how this looks in action at the end of this post.
Fade Your Support Over Time
Although you want to start practicing this complex skill with a good amount of support at the start, it is important for children with autism and similar neurodiverse profiles that we have a plan to help them respond more independently early on in the learning process. To do this, it is helpful to make a short mental or written list of the ways you want to show your child the meaning of yes/no questions and what they can do to respond. We discussed visual support above, which is one way to show meaning. Another form of support is to model the spoken answer using spoken words and/or pictured words on an augmentative communication (AAC) device or tool. Start out using as much of these supports as needed for your child to answer accurately and once you feel confident that they are getting the hang of it, try to practice with less support, and then less, until they are doing it all on their own.
Switch It Up
Children with autism benefit from learning new skills using the principle of “repetition with variety”. This means that you’ll want to give your children frequent opportunities to practice the skills of answering yes/no questions and that you’ll want some of that practice to be repetitive and other opportunities to be new. You can add variety to practice by changing the questions you ask, offering more complex questions over time and changing the structure of your questions to help your child gain flexible understanding. Check out a list of yes/no question examples at the end of this post.
Get Started with Yes/No Question Practice Today
Use the steps below to guide your practice with your child, changing things up as needed because you know your child best.
Step 1: Practice Yes with “Do you want_______?”
Offer your child an item you know they want. Let’s use a snack as an example.
Ask “Do you want crackers?” as you point to the crackers or hold them out.
As your child reaches for the crackers as if to say yes, Show a gestures for yes (such as a head nod or thumbs up) and say the word yes with emphasis to help you child look and listen more closely to the word. Then give your child the item.
Practice again with a preferred item in this same way, offering support at first and then less support. Less support might look like you asking “Do you want crackers?” while holding out the crackers and then just nodding or using a thumbs up without saying the word, giving your child a chance to copy your movement or use it as a hint to say the word yes.
Once your child demonstrates consistent success answering yes with little or no support from your gestures or models, add some chances to practice no.
Step 2: Practice No with “Do you want________?”
Offer your child an item you know they don’t want. Let’s use a tissue as an example.
Ask “Do you want a tissue?” as you hold the tissue out.
As your child refuses the item through their behavior, facial expression, or other gesture like pushing away, show them no (through a head shake or thumbs down) and say the word no with emphasis to help your child look and listen more closely to the word. Then remove the undesired item.
Practice again with an undesired item in this same way, offering support at first and then less support. Less support might look like you asking “Do you want a tissue?” while holding out the tissue and then just sharing your head or using a thumbs down without saying the word, giving your child a chance to copy your movement or use it as a hint to say the word no.
Once your child gets the hang of these simple yes/no questions with your support, increase the frequency of your practice and encourage more independence.
Step 3: Fade Support for Simple Questions
Ask “Do you want_____” more often for more items that are preferred (yes) and undesired (no). Start each practice without support by aksing the question without a visual gesture or spoken model. Make sure you wait long enough before repeating questions or offering support as kids need time to process and respond.
If your child responds accurately with a yes or no signal or spoken word, awesome! Have a praise party!
If your child responds inaccurately or uses their “old” response”, start offering some support again in that moment, by using your visual gesture for example, to remind them.
Once your child has demonstrated consistent success with the simple question “Do you want_____?” without support form you, add variety to your questions, using different question forms.
Step 4: Ask Different Types of Yes/No Questions
Use different questions in practice that offer visual support for understanding. For example, you can hold up or point to items and ask “Is this______?”, inserting the name of the time or the color at the end of your question. Ask this with accurate information to practice yes and with inaccurate information to practice no. Get silly with it to keep your child interested. While holding up a car ask “Is this a monkey?”-these absurd games will surely get your child’s attention and offer some laughs while helping them learn yes/no in a new way.
Use more complex questions that don’t offer visual support for understanding. The list is long here but think about other types of questions that have a yes/no answer that you can integrate into practice to help your child increase their understanding and consistency. A few examples include: Do you like_____?; Do you want to______?; Are you ______?
Step 5: Keep on Teaching Through Feedback
If your child answers incorrectly, such as by saying no when they mean ye, respond accordingly and emphasize the meaning of their answer so they can see where they went wrong.
Be sure to end on a successful, positive note with each practice, even if that means giving more support than you think your child needs or has needed in previous practice sessions.
Model yes/no questions throughout the day so that your child can see and hear this language in use by others in their world and learn through that observation alongside their own direct practice time.
If you’re looking for support to help your child learn communication and other essential life skills, consider our online tutoring and online coaching services and resources!
Originally posted on the Goally blog