Going beyond an adult needing to act as an interpreter to sustaining interactions is the next step. Children may need to be taught to understand their classmates mode of communication. The following three strategies are for teaching direct interactions.

• Encourage children to attend to and interpret the nonverbal communication of their classmate.
• Remind children to speak directly to their classmate rather than addressing the message to a nearby adult.
• Help children include their classmate in decision making and choosing of activities.

These strategies focus on teaching the children how to interpret the child with a disability's way of communicating such as learning facial expressions, gestures, posturing, vocalizations and eye gaze. They must also learn how to obtain an answer from their classmate such as asking yes or no questions, holding up choices, or knowing the items on a communication board. This may require explanation, modeling, and feedback to the peer. They may also need to be taught to be persistent, when to leave a student alone, or to wait for a response when attempting to interact. Initially the children often ask the adult about what the classmate wants or thinks. The child needs to be reminded to speak to the classmate by redirecting the question or comment to include the child with the disability. This can be done by modeling or referencing an answer from the child's perspective.