Communication with Autistic Children

Below are some questions/phrases that I will use while trying to converse with the autistic children in Kunming, China.  These are only a few out of many phrases that I will prepare.  I know all these sentences by heart, but I wrote the translation below for those who cannot understand.

志愿者 – 我跟孤独症孩子说话

你喜欢做什么？

What do you like?

你住在哪儿？

Where do you live?

你是哪少数民族？

What is your minority?

你喜欢不喜欢养宠物？

Do you like animals?

你喜欢狗吗？你喜欢猫吗？

Do you like dogs? Cats? 

我觉得你很聪明！

I think you are very smart!

你比我聪明！

You are smarter than me!

你很漂亮！

You are very pretty!

你很可爱！ 

You are very cute!

你跟我一起画画。

Let’s draw together.

给我画一个故事。

Draw me a story.

画画你昨天做什么了。

Draw what you did yesterday.

I once saw a story on the news about a dog really helping an autistic child with communication.  The parents even communicated with their child through the dog!  It was a very interesting thing to see because the autistic child would not really talk with his parents except when they would “pretend” to be the dogs voice.   I know this is extremely unlikely, but I would looove to bring a nice trained dog with me to volunteer sometime.  All the dogs I have seen here in China are usually small, very obedient and never on a leash.   I heard that one of the Chinese teachers at the Keats School has 8 dogs…  MAYBE I will able to arrange that somehow… on some days…

I have also heard from my Chinese teacher that one autistic person drew his entire trip to New York.  I actually remember seeing that on the news!  I immediately learned how to say the last sentences above.  If I can communicate with the children through drawing and art that will be very helpful!