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Welcome back to the Autism Little Learners Podcast. I'm Tara Phillips and today we're talking about one of the most important and most misunderstood parts of AAC protesting. So often AAC is used just for requesting, but communication is so much bigger than that. One area that's often overlooked or ignored completely is teaching kids how to protest. In this episode, we'll explore why protesting is essential for self advocacy and the difference between acknowledging and honoring a child's no and simple ways to model protests on AAC systems. Throughout the day, you'll also learn the eight steps to honoring protests that can transform your home or classroom, foster positive connections and develop self advocacy skills. Let's get started.
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Hi, I'm Tara and this is the Autism Little Learners Podcast. I am a speech language pathologist with a twist. I've run my own communication based classroom for over two decades and I'm so excited to share actionable tips and strategies for supporting young autistic children. My goal is to help you feel more confident and successful when teaching your autistic child or students at the early childhood level. If you are ready to learn some tried and true strategies that really work, this is the podcast for you. Let's get started.
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Foreign. When we think about augmentative and alternative communication or AAC and autism, it's easy to focus on teaching children how to request what they want. But communication is so much more than that. One of the most important and empowering skills we can support is helping autistic children use their AAC systems to protest. Protesting isn't bad behavior, it's communication. When a child says no, stop or don't like on their AAC device, they're expressing autonomy, preferences and self advocacy. Just like spoken words, these messages deserve to be heard and respected. Today we'll talk about why protests matter for autistic children, the difference between acknowledging and honoring protests, how to model protests with AAC systems for autistic children, and and finally, the eight steps to honor protests that can shift your classroom or home from compliance based to connection based. First, let's talk about why protesting matters when we're talking about teaching young autistic children. For many years, classrooms discouraged protests. Children were expected to comply even when they didn't understand or they were overwhelmed. But compliance is not communication. By using AAC for autistic children, we give them a way to express themselves safely and clearly. Protests a allow children to set boundaries for example stop. No, not yet. Express feelings like mad, sad, don't like protect themselves like help too loud, too much and help them make choices, want different. All done. When we teach and model protests on AAC systems, we're showing children that their voice matters in every situation. Now, what does the research tell us? There's an article on language functions in AAC teaching protesting, and it states being able to refuse or reject is the basis for self advocacy, self determination, and autonomy. That's huge, you guys. A systematic review of AAC interventions for minimally verbal autistic children found that while most focus on requests, the evidence base supports improvements in broader communication, with some indications that behavior improves when children can communicate more effectively. And this means communicating for all kinds of reasons. One of those being protesting. So protesting is not a side issue. It's central to meaningful communication. Now we're going to talk a little bit about the difference between acknowledging and honoring protests. When children protest using their AAC systems, adults have two possible acknowledging or honoring. Both are important, but they look different. So when we're talking honoring protests, it means pausing, adjusting, or stopping what we're doing in response to the protest. Here's an example. A child taps stop on their device during an activity, and the adult pauses or changes the activity. A child pushes away the puzzle and selects no. The adult says, no puzzle today. That's okay, we'll find something else. And when we're talking multimodal communication, a lot of times you will see kids push something away, use gestures in some way to let you know, no, I don't want that. And our job then is to model that on the device from the child's perspective. And I think this is where modeling protests gets overlooked. So we want to model and say, no, okay, no, you don't want that. And then find something else to do. So honoring that communicates your no has power. It also communicates you can change what happens. And it communicates your autonomy is respected. And this lays the groundwork for trust, safety, and future self advocacy. So there we talked about honoring protests. Now let's talk about acknowledging protests. Acknowledging is different. Sometimes we cannot stop what's happening, like leaving school at dismissal. But when we can still acknowledge the protest with empathy and clarity, that's where some of the magic happens. We might model, no, you said no. And then verbally add to it. You don't want to clean up. That's hard. I'll do it with you. Another example is modeling don't like on the device when you can tell that a child is not liking what you're doing. So you can model don't like and say you don't like this. I get It. I'll stay close while we finish and then we can take a break. Here's another example. I know you don't want to leave, but it's time. I'll help you. So there you can model, don't want. Acknowledging these protests communicates that you are hearing them, that their feelings are valid and they are not alone. Even when we can't honor a protest, acknowledgement helps children feel safe and respected. And it gives them the language to do it on their own in the future. Now let's talk about why honoring protests with AAC devices really, really matters. Number one, communication is more than requesting. When people ask what AAC is for, the first answer is often to make requests. But AAC systems are meant for so much more. And again, protesting is a critical communication function. It's how children say no and assert their rights and their wants and their feelings and their preferences. Number two, protesting builds trust. When adults honor no or stop, children learn that their words matter and they're respected and this strengthens relationships and makes future communication attempts more likely. Number three, protesting prevents escalation. When children feel heard and able to express refusal or discomfort, we reduce the likelihood of stress responses, meltdowns, shutdowns. Research supports that effective AAC implementation can reduce aggressive or challenging behavior in some children. Number four, protest teaches autonomy. Every child has that right to say no. And teaching protests through AAC shows autistic children that their voice carries weight just like their speaking peers. This aligns with the broader neurodiversity affirming values we are supporting self advocacy, choice and respect. Now, children won't automatically know how to use protest words. They might show us with their actions right? And they're going to need them to be modeled and modeled without expectation. At this point, adults can demonstrate how to say no or stop on an AC device in natural contexts. For example, if I'm working with a student and they push away the materials that I had out and it was like my plan and my agenda for the activity that we were going to do, if they push it away, I want to go to the AAC device. Whether it's a device or if you have a core board available and model stop. Okay, stop, stop. You don't want to do this? All right, let's pick something else and give a couple of choices. A lot of times that will help kids stay engaged while teaching really important self advocacy skills. Maybe at circle time you model don't like if a sound is too loud at mealtime, you can model all done or want different and then Here's a pro tip. Pair modeling with validation. If a child protests by saying no on their device, respond respectfully. You said no, I hear you. Let's do something different. These practices shift the relationship dynamic from we expect you to comply to you have a voice will listen and respond. Okay, now I want to go through the eight Steps to Honor Protests. I'm going to share eight Steps to Honoring a Protest and if you look in the show notes, there's a link for you to Download this. Number 1 Respect no as a valid response, not a behavior to extinguish. Number two pause and stop the activity when a child protests. 3. Model protest language on their AAC no stop. Don't want go away, not yet. 4. Repeat and reflect what the child is expressing. You said stop. You don't want to do this right now.
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5.
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Provide real choices that give the child meaningful control 6. Adjust the environment like offering sensory tools, changing the activity, the pace, reduce overwhelm 7. Allow time to regulate before moving forward, especially after a protest and 8 use the protest as a guide. It can tell us what doesn't feel safe, fun or engaging, and that will guide us with what activities we choose for each child. AAC gives autistic children a reliable voice, but that voice is only meaningful if adults teach them all the different ways to use it. Honoring protests is not optional. It's essential. By modeling those protest words, respecting boundaries, and teaching teams and families to value no, we empower autistic children to advocate for themselves. When we do this, we support not only communication, but humanity. Thank you so much for joining me today and I hope it was helpful. I'll see you next week, same time, same place.
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I'm sending a big virtual hug your way because you just finished another episode of the Autism Little Learners Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. You have had success with any of the strategies that you learned about in this podcast.
- [11:27]
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I would love to hear from you.
- [11:30]
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Send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook. Autismlittlelearners don't forget to grab your free visual support starter set by going to autismlittlelearners.com visuals and always remember to find.
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The good in every day. Sam.