The Important Difference Between Conversation and Communication with Autism

But first, you must understand five things:

1. Communication is about reciprocity

It is not about one person dominating the conversation, and it is certainly not about word production or the number of words being used…
Communication is about how effectively those words are used in a back-and-forth exchange. It is about being interested in what your partner shares; it’s about reciprocity.
One of my students was in the habit of asking the mothers who came to our center what they had cooked that day. The delighted mothers would answer elaborately.  But he was not interested in their answers. In fact, he didn’t even wait for them!
He probably had been taught to ask certain questions to increase his ‘wh’ repertoire.

Read more here at Autism Parenting Magazine.