Choosing your words with care
Youth-friendly communication involves choosing inclusive, affirming and age-appropriate language.
Helpful resources
Avoiding infantilisation
On this page
Different words might carry different meanings depending on the life experiences of the individual you’re interacting with.
Helpful resources
For more information about how experience impacts how disabled young people understand different words, you can read a report for the Disability Royal Commission done by JFA Purple Orange.
You can also get some tips and tricks around inclusive language from YERP or do a micro-course developed by the Queensland Government.
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Research Report examining language and vocabulary used by people living with a disability.
JFA Purple Orange Report
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How to speak respectively to all people
YERP - Using inclusive langauge
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Learn more about inclusive language through a short 3 part micro-course.
Queensland Government - Inclusive Language Microcourse
Avoiding infantilisation
Make sure you do not speak or act in a way that infantilises the young person. Infantilisation means treating someone as though they are a child.
Examples of infantilising include speaking in a slow, exaggerated way because you expect a person won’t be able to keep up with your usual speech or addressing a parent or carer instead of the disabled young person.
Infantilisation is hurtful and disrespectful.
The language you use can also have a positive or negative impact on the way a disabled young person feels about themselves and their disability.
For more information about this, If you haven’t already worked through it, you can learn more about language usage in the section of this hub on embedding disability pride in your organisation.