Things to avoid

The following is a list of some of the things that you should avoid doing as they do not support young people with communication needs.

• Do not interrupt or finish a young person’s sentences for them
• Do not use complicated or complex words - if this is unavoidable then make sure you explain what it means in their words
• Do not talk about events in an order out of sequence to how they actually happened
• Do not expect young people to sit at tables to work for a long time
• Do not assume someone understands what you are talking about, even if they say that they do
• Do not assume young people can read and write
• Do not correct a young person’s language for them
• Do not forget that they may experience mental overload and ‘shut down’
• Do not go on too long - allow breaks of at least 10 minutes for 50 minutes of proceedings
• Do not rush a young person - allow time for speaking and reading responses