More Than Words: Helping Families See Every Way Their Child Is Communicating

with Nicole Casey, M.S., CCC-SLP
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
12:00pm-2:00pm (PDT) | Virtual Event

Can't attend the event live? Register to receive access to the recording!

"When will my child talk?" is one of the most common questions early intervention providers are asked, and one of the hardest to answer honestly. In late talkers, the strongest known predictor of expressive language outcome explains about 12% of the variance in later language. Individual prediction is not possible with the tools we have.

Faced with that uncertainty, many of us default to reassurance.
“It's still early.”
“Every child develops differently.”

Both are true, but neither gives the family information they can use.

Evidence from related fields suggests that reassurance without information is associated with poorer outcomes than honest, informative responses. In pediatrics, children whose providers responded passively to a parent's concern were diagnosed roughly three years later.

This two-hour session reviews what current evidence does and does not support about predicting spoken language in late-talking and autistic toddlers, and offers a different way to answer the question.

That answer starts with multimodal communication, and with why communication modes are not a developmental hierarchy with speech at the top.

You will learn to describe a child's communication across gesture, gaze, vocalization, sign, AAC and speech. And you will learn a rubric-based format that helps families recognize the progress already happening at home.

Learning Objectives:

• Summarize what current evidence does and does not support about predicting spoke language outcomes in late-talking and autistic toddlers.
• Differentiate between reassurance that provides information and reassurance that provides only comfort, and describe how each is associated with family outcomes.
• Respond to a caregiver's question about when their child will talk in a way that acknowledges the concern without offering false certainty.
• Identify multiple modes of a child's communication and describe growth across those modes to a family using a rubric-based format.

Nicole Casey, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist with 12 years supporting autistic children and the professionals who work with them.

She is the founder of The Child-Led SLP, where she teaches child-led, neuroaffirming practice through The Child-Led Collective, the Let Them Lead podcast, and the annual Child-Led Autism Summit, which reached more than 25,000 clinicians.

Non-Member: $55
IDA Agency/Individual Member: $40
IDA Parent/Student/New Clinician Member: $30

IDA CE Hours: Nursing & Speech and Language $20 (2.0 hour)
We can no longer offer PT units at this time but we hope to provide them again soon!

ADA Requests: As a part of the Infant Development Association’s ongoing commitment to inclusion, we offer accommodations when possible. Please email IDA at [email protected] 10 business days prior to the event to request accommodations (ASL interpretation, large print, etc.).

Limited number of scholarships available IDA's Email [email protected]

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