How do we support a non-verbal pupil to communicate?

Start a total-communication approach now: pair speech with symbols, Makaton signs and picture- or device-based AAC and refer to a speech and language therapist. Presume the pupil understands; don't wait for a diagnosis. AAC stands for augmentative and alternative communication, which means any system that makes speech clearer or stands in for it, from picture cards to a voice-output device. A non-speaking pupil is not a non-understanding pupil, and you do not need an autism assessment, an SLT report or an EHC plan in place before you begin.

First: total communication and an SLT referral

Total communication means every adult uses more than their voice all day: spoken words alongside Makaton signs, objects, photos, symbol cards and pointing. Make a referral to a speech and language therapist (SLT) the same week. The SLT's role in school is to remove the barriers a pupil's communication needs put in the way of learning, and to assess, recommend and help set up the right AAC (RCSLT, 2025). Around 1 in 200 people in the UK may need AAC, so this is a routine ask, not a niche one.

Then: one consistent system, used everywhere

Agree one core system with the SLT, the pupil and the family, and use it in every lesson, at break, at home and on the bus, not just in a weekly session. AAC is of no use unless the user has it everywhere they need it and the adults around them model it constantly (RCSLT, 2025). The make-or-break factors:

• Trained communication partners. Every adult who works with the pupil learns the system and models it as they speak. A device the pupil only meets in therapy will fail.
• All functions, not just requesting. Give them ways to comment, greet, refuse, joke and choose, not only to ask for things (National Autistic Society, 2025).
• Personalised and always available. No two pupils are the same; the vocabulary follows the child and travels with them.

A predictable, low-arousal classroom makes the system land. A visual timetable is a natural first piece of AAC.

The legal backstop if support stalls

You do not need a plan to start, but the law gives you a backstop. Communication and interaction is one of the four broad areas of SEN, so a school must use its best endeavours to make the provision a pupil with SEN needs through SEN Support (Children and Families Act 2014, section 66), with or without an EHC plan. As a disabled pupil, a non-speaking child is also owed reasonable adjustments, including auxiliary aids such as a communication device, so they are not put at a substantial disadvantage (Equality Act 2010, section 20). Where SLT or AAC provision is written into Section F of an EHC plan, the council must secure it, and that duty cannot be passed off to health (Children and Families Act 2014, section 42). If provision is missing or delayed, point to whichever of these duties applies.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.