Today I want to talk about some ways to help your child begin to talk.  

      For a child to become an active participant in communication, there must be a need, an opportunity, and a reward for their efforts.  Creating a reason to communicate is one of the most important things we can do to help children develop communication skills. In other words, we DO NOT have to anticipate their needs! I know, it sounds harsh, but think about it… By not anticipating, we give a child an opportunity to show and tell us what he or she wants or needs. When a desire is fulfilled, this is rewarding for a child, and there is a great chance that he or she will try the communication method again.

        Creating Communicative Temptations (this term was formalized by Wetherby & Prizant in 1989) is one way to create a need for communication. This is exactly what it sounds like: setting up the environment in such a way as to tempt a child to communicate with us.

     Here are some ways to tempt your child to request:

• Give your child a toy that requires your help to operate and wait.
• Give your child a coloring book, but nothing to color with. Hold a crayon out of reach and wait.
•  “Forget” to give your child a spoon for her yogurt and wait
•  Put him in the swing and wait.
•  Give a favorite book to her, and wait.

     Here is an example:

• Give your child a hard to open container of bubbles or a tub of playdough. DO NOT OPEN IT.  WAIT…  
• Waiting is an important part of this process. We want to give a child a chance to communicate first, to initiate the communication.
• When he communicates (through a gesture, a grunt, a point, a sound, a word)

          - provide a MODEL of what you want him to say: “Open” or “Open bubbles” or   “Mommy open bubbles” or “More bubbles please”.  Say it as a statement, not with a rising intonation of a question
         - Give him what he wants
         -and cheer him on!

• Next time wait just a little bit after you provide a model and see if your child will repeat. Don’t wait too long (we want to give him opportunity to communicate, not become upset and distressed).

 
Here is another one:

• Have a favorite snack visible, but in out of reach place (put it in a clear hard to open box or on top of the refrigerator).
• When your child indicates that she wants a cookie (maybe she points or reaches),

         -Provide a model (“Cookie”, “Want cookie”, “I want cookie”),
         -Wait for her response just a bit before giving her the treat.
         -Cheer her on!
 
A model you are going to provide for your child depends on his or her level.

• if your child is not saying words yet, model one word (“open”),
• if he uses single words, model two words (“open bubbles”),
• if she is combining 2 words together, provide 3 words phrase (“green play dough”)

 
Do not get discouraged if he or she does not repeat on your first attempt to implement communicative temptations. Be persistent and it will work.
 
Here are a few more ideas
(from http://childdevelopmentprograms.ca/elearning-modules/the-power-of-play/story_content/external_files/Communication%20Temptation%20Ideas.pdf):

• Hold a ball as if to throw or roll it, and wait.
• Pour only a little water in your child’s cup let him drink it all and wait.
• Give your child a little bit of food at a time let her eat it all and wait.
• Put the food in large family style serving bowls on the table, give your child an empty plate and wait.  
• Give your child food in a package he cannot open on his own, and wait.
• If your child likes toys in his bath, let her get into the water with no toys, and wait.
• Play with a puzzle. After your child has put in 2 or 3 pieces, offer your child a piece that does not fit and wait
• Initiate a familiar and an unfamiliar social game with your child (like "peek-a-boo") until she expresses pleasure, then stop the game and wait.
• Engage your child in an activity with a something that can be easily spilled (or dropped, broken, torn, etc.). Suddenly spill some of the substance on the table or floor in front of your child and wait.

Remember, you are not being mean! You are creating the environment for your child to become an excellent communicator!

Going apple picking this weekend?  With the apple picking season upon us, why not use this opportunity to enrich and develop your child’s language? These are ten things I came up with. Feel free to share yours!​
​1.  Who can come up with most words to describe apples? Red, smooth, juicy, round, smooth, tart, crunchy, cold, rotten…     you got the idea.

2.  What can we do with an apple? Eat, slice, peel, core, bake, pick, bite, chew…

3.  Where do apples grow? On the apple tree! Talk about parts of the tree: trunk, branches, leaves, roots, bark. Find these parts on different trees.

4.  What parts does an apple have? Skin, core, seeds, stem, flesh. Which part do we eat? Or don’t?

5.  You can talk about apples that grow high or low on a tree, or fell on the ground, or grow near/far from the trunk.

6.  Talk about what food you can make with apples: apple pie, apple sauce, caramel apples, apple juice. Did I miss something? 

7.  If you decide to actually make a recipe, this is an excellent opportunity 
-to discuss what ingredients and equipment you need to make it
-to talk about HOW you will make it (what the steps are)
-to help your child recall and describe the steps after you are done
- to enjoy the shack

8.  Count the apples. Who has more? Less?

9.  Find the biggest/smallest one. Compare the apples: big-bigger-the biggest, small-smaller-the smallest.

10.  Don’t forget to talk about the hay ride, lots of vocabulary there too.  
 ​
As always, if you have questions or concerns about your child's speech, language, play, or communication, talk to the speech therapist www.slp4u.com/contact.html

Bath time is an excellent time to connect with your child and to enrich and encourage your child’s language development.  It is repetitive and familiar, so you can discuss the steps: “First we poor water in the tub, then we take the clothes off, then get into the tub, etc”.  Talk about all actions you are doing and ask your child what happens next. 
Many parents use bath time to read books and sing songs with their children.  Here are some more things you can do to make bath time even more fun. (Think about all the wonderful words you can teach your child while playing):

1. Wash a baby doll. The doll may happen to have dirty hands, nose, tummy, back, toes, etc. You could wash the doll using soap, shampoo, washcloth. Rinse it with water, poor water over the doll, dry with the towel. And now your baby doll has clean toes, fingers, hair, knees, elbows, eyes

2. Play with the wash cloth. Wash it, twist it, watch the water drip, wring it, squeeze it, pull it.  Hide your face behind it and play peek-a-boo. Hide the little toys under/inside it. Use it to wash the toys

3. You could poor water in/out of cups and containers of different sizes and colors. The cups will be dry/wet, empty/full, have more/less/some water

4. Toy fish could swim in/out of the cups, splash, jump high/low, in/out of the water, swim up/down, side to side, backwards and forward, fast and slow

5. Other animals could also jump and splash in the water. You could catch them with the net, put them in a toy boat, count, wash, and hide in the soap bubbles.

What games do you play with your child during bath time?