17 Strategies to communicate & connect with you non-speaking child

<p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []"><strong>Guest Speaker</strong></p> <p class="">Crestina Yaiva is a mother of twins. She and her husband have one child who has been diagnosed with autism, and struggles with communication. She shares her story, and how she learned to overcome obstacles of communicating with her non-speaking child. </p> <p class=""><strong>What were Crestina’s first thoughts and feelings when she learned her son was autistic?</strong> </p> <p class="">Around three years old Crestina noticed that Franco had some speech delays, and wouldn’t talk as much as his brother Vincent. When he was officially diagnosed around the age of four, Crestina felt somewhat relieved to have a place to start understanding her child better. However, she was also very overwhelmed by all the information and such that was being given to her. The first thing she did was join every Facebook group she could find from local to national. Her focus/goal was to learn how to better handle her son’s diagnosis. </p> <p class=""><strong>After some research, what did Crestina do to solidify her next moves?</strong> </p> <p class="">Once Franco completed testing, he was set up with a developmental pediatrician. Crestina was given a research book to help guide her on this new journey with her child. Crestina jumped into action setting Franco up with speech therapy, occupational therapy, and any other type of therapy that would aid in her son’s development. From there, she searched the internet for any reading material to further her knowledge. There were a couple books that proved to be very resourceful to her and her husband. Crestina found the book The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida to be her favorite. It truly helped her understand some of her son’s behavior, such as the random breakdowns and sensory overloads her son went through without her knowing the cause. She realized in her son’s mind time is not linear, and that changed her perspective for the better. As for her husband, the book Not My Boy by Kelly Simmons caused him to f