Parents are very good at predicting their child’s needs. After all, YOU are the expert on your child. Nobody else can know them better. You know if they want the blue ball or the red ball. You know which cup is their favorite. You know if they like the original goldfish crackers or the rainbow. Parents are so good at this, that we often eliminate most frustrations our child can face in a day. BUT, when it comes to communication, small amounts of frustration can be a good thing! It is a powerful motivator. Because you know your child so well, you can create what is called communication temptations throughout their day. A communication temptation is when you manipulate a situation or activity to encourage a child to communicate. For example, if you know Johnny’s favorite color is red, give him the blue ball. This will give Johnny a reason to say, “red ball!”
Other examples of communication temptations include:
- – Provide clothing to put on that is too small/big from a sibling and wait for them to alert you.
- Provide a snack with the packaging they can’t open or forget to provide silverware and wait for them to ask for help.
- Stand at the door but don’t open it and wait for them to ask for help.
- Skip a step in their routine and wait for them to alert you.
- Give them scant amounts of a preferred drink and wait for them to ask for more.
- Provide a coloring page but no crayons and wait for them to ask you for some.
- Periodically pause preferred activities (music, bubbles) and wait for them to request for more.
- Eat a preferred snack in front of your child without offering them any and wait for their response.
Depending on the stage of development your child is at, your expectation for communication will differ. If they have never said “juice” before, it would be unrealistic to expect this of them before giving them juice. If they know how to request ‘more’ verbally or through sign language, you can accept this as their communication. In non-verbal children, we would accept eye contact as their communication. (You can ask your speech therapist what an appropriate expectation for your child would be.) Regardless, after 5-10 seconds of waiting, you can model an appropriate request and give the item to your child. The goal is to model communication and tempt communication, (not force communication). Make it silly and have fun!
Blog by: Hanna Stineman M.A., CCC-SLP
