Words. Have. Power.
That is the truth. The impact of the words that we choose to speak to others can hurt, inspire, discourage, or build someone up.
A personal pet peeve of mine, is when people talk negatively about one one of my clients directly in front of my client. That really bothers me. It happens with clients of all functioning abilities, but I see it the most with my nonverbal, more early learner type of clients. I think people look at them and set low expectations: "Well, Joshua doesn't talk and he stims alot, so he can't be smart", "Well, Joshua isn't even listening to what I'm saying anyway, he's busy jumping all over the room".
Make it a habit to choose carefully the words you speak around, or to, your child or your client. Remind others who try to talk negatively about the child in frot of them, to speak with you privately, or to write it down.
When I am supervising my staff and we need to discuss the client's behavior, we write notes to each other. The last thing I want to do is say in front of the child how badly the child is doing in their therapy session.
I choose to speak encouragement to the children I work with, even if I don't know how much they understand. It doesn't matter. I would rather assume the best of them and be wrong, than to assume the worst of them.
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