Communication and Language

Make a board with pictures or symbols on it so that if your child wants something they can hand you the picture of the item they want.  If you are not already familiar with PECS and have a non verbal child this would be a great starting place.

Label what you and your child are doing.  This works really nicely if your child is echoic.  For example is your child likes it when you tickle his feet you might say "Mommy tickle" and then tickle your child's foot.  After you have done this several times pause for several seconds to give your child the opportunity to say "Mommy tickle"  If you child does this tickle his feet extra enthusiastically.  Once your child is saying this regularly try adding more words. 

Set a schedule for your child to follow.  If your child is stuck in his or her routine and gets upset when there are changes this might be helpful.  Pick a central location in the house for the schedule.  Put on the schedule all the major activities that will be happening for the day.  This might include breakfast, school, ABA therapy, eat dinner and take a bath.  Then make a schedule for each of these activities that you can pull out when the time for that activity occurs.  This will help your child organize his day and be less frustrated when you make changes to their regular routine.

Make more comments than ask questions.  So often we get caught up in asking our child 1000's of questions all day long.  The problem with this is you are constantly testing and not teaching.  Besides its not normal anyway.  You can take turns making comments with your child also. 

Don't demand language, it causes frustration. However model language.  If your child gets stuck and you are working on something new try modeling the language but possibly leaving off the last word and see if they can do some of it independently instead of making them say the whole sentence independently.