PDD-NOS Treatment: Helping Language Develop What Parents Can Do

Talk to Your Child

  • Label things in your environment name foods at the grocery store or in the kitchen, point at and name items in the living room or at the park.
  • Describe for your child what they are doing, feeling and hearing during the course of the day. For example if he is drawing make statements like, “you are drawing, I like the color red, you are coloring a bunny.”
  • Expand on what your child says. (For example, if your child says, “Ball!”, you can say, “You want a ball!”)
  • Follow your child’s lead, so you are doing activities that hold their interest as you talk.
  • Answer your child every time they speak—this rewards them for talking.
  • Encourage imitation of sounds and gestures.


    • Play With Your Child

  • Play with your child one-on-one, and talk about the toys and games you are playing.
  • We offer several easy to play games that encourage language. Some great vocabulary building game are Photo Opposites, Photo Match Up, and the Positions Game.
  • Good games for building expressive language are Missing Objects Mix and Match Game, What's Wrong with This Picture Cards, or Where is Puppy? Cards, Story sequencing.

  • Charades is a great game that encourages a child with PDD-NOS to start focusing on the body language of another.


    • Read to Your Child

  • Look for books or picture books that capture your child’s interest. While reading point and name the objects in the pictures. A classic book like Pat the Bunny, encourages the child to imitate patting the bunny.
  • Books with repetition such as Dr. Seuss’s Are You My Mother can help children begin to repeat and practice language.
  • Predictable books, such as Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, in which your child can anticipate what happens as can encourage language.


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