Receptive Language Means Understanding Language

It is very common for a child with autism to have difficulty understanding language--even children who can use quite a bit of language may not understand language well.  I often encourage families to spend less energy on trying to get a child to talk and more energy trying to help a child understand language.  So how can you help your child understand language?  On the new Autism Games Website, there is game page called Say What They See, where I have put some games (more to come in the future).  Below is a clip and a little bit of what is on that page:

Creating games where your child needs to understand what you say requires careful timing because children with autism are so used to not understanding language that they give up, stop listening or get upset quickly. I create games that are rather like a multiple choice test--there are not very many possibilities so the child can guess right most the time. Still, I want the child to need to think at least a little about the meaning of the words that he or she hears. Below, you will see a clip for a Hide and Find game and I use dozens of variations of different hide and find games to help children comprehend new words. In this clip, we are working on both the word "under" and on animal names.