Celebrating impact through communication: tips for parents

This week is Speech Pathology Week, a week to celebrate impact through communication.

Communication is how children connect and explore the world around them. Our Early Childhood Intervention Services (ECIS) team know that communication is more than just words. It’s about sharing thoughts, feelings, and needs in many ways through gestures, signs, AAC devices, and pictures.

Every way is important, meaningful, and worth celebrating.

Here’s how communication shows up in everyday family life and some practical ways parents, guardians and educators can work together to help grow these skills.

Connection

Example: Your toddler points at a favourite toy, and you respond by naming it and passing it to them.

This back-and-forth helps build attention, understanding, and warm connections.

Tips for parents:

• Follow your child’s lead, notice what they’re interested in and respond quickly
• Make comments to invite a response through low pressure connection in a game. Take turns pointing, naming and passing objects.

Confidence

Example: Your child proudly says their name clearly at kindergarten for the first time.

Being understood boosts their confidence and helps them join in with friends.

Tips for parents:

• Encourage all communication attempts, in any form.
• Celebrate every child’s unique strengths.

Inclusion

Example: At group time, your child chooses the song by tapping it on their AAC device.

This gives them a way to join in and feel part of the group.

Tips for parents:

• Provide opportunities and time for children to communicate their needs and wants alongside their opinions and negotiations.
• All children can benefit from visual supports in their environments, like kinder group time to support their learning and participation.

Empowerment

Example: Your child shows a “need a break” card when things feel too much.

Knowing how to communicate needs gives children more control over their day.

Tips for parents:

• Notice and validate your child’s feelings. Support them to add language to what is happening for them.
• Giving space for children to tell us what they don’t like is just as important as what they do like.
• Co-regulation through connection is empowering.

Opportunity

Example: At the playground, your child waves “hello” to a new friend.

Small gestures can open the door to new friendships and social skills.

Tips for parents:

• Opportunities for communication, new vocabulary and language are constantly around us.
• Model language and gestures that support your child’s voice.
• Wait before you ask a question and let your child take the conversational lead.

Wellbeing

Example: Your child uses Key Word Sign to say they feel “sad”, and you respond with comfort.

Communication helps children share feelings and supports their emotional wellbeing.

Tips for parents:

• Acknowledge and validate feelings (“I can see that this has made you sad”).
• Remember all emotions are OK.
• Building emotional vocabulary comes through others sharing their own emotions and regulation strategies

Independence

Example: At breakfast, your child uses a picture to choose their favourite cereal.

Having a way to make choices builds independence and self-confidence.

Tips for parents:

• Offer opportunities for making choices in their everyday (“Do you want cereal or toast?”).
• Closely observe your child’s actions and gestures to understand what they want to communicate.

Children thrive when they can express themselves in ways that are seen, heard and understood. Every child has the right to be heard, in whatever way works for them.

At MCM our ECIS speech pathologists work alongside families to help every child to find their voice, whether it’s through words, signs, pictures or devices.

If you’d like to learn more about our Early Childhood Intervention Services or speak to one of our speech pathologists, or contact us via our enquiry form.