Promote, Don't Prompt
When parents ask me “How can I get my child to talk?” I reframe the question to “How can we support communication?”
Talking is only one form of communication. Children communicate in a variety of ways when they feel safe, engaged, and supported. Prompting children to talk often makes them feel unsafe, disengaged, and unsupported. My early communication supports help parents promote, not prompt, communication in all its forms.
One of my little learners recently had a communication breakthrough. His parents were eager for him to speak and prompted him several times to do so. I first acknowledged their intentions and validated their desire for him to speak. Then I modeled a different strategy to spark communication by helping him feel safe, engaged, and supported:
I commented on what was interesting to him rather than prompting him to talk about what was interesting to me.
Our little learner welcomed me to sit beside him and look at one of his favorite dinosaur books. As he turned the pages, I said “Wow!” and “Ooh,” language-neutral sounds for fascination and excitement.
When he looked at me to reference my words, I added a little more language such as “Big tail” or “Yummy leaves” as I pointed to the pictures. He followed my point and started to say “yes” or “no” to my ideas, Then he added his own!
He commented on dinosaurs, body parts, trees, feelings, and more. I continued to build on his language by asking simple questions such as “Is he hungry?” when looking at a picture of a dinosaur eating leaves (the visual helped him process the language and respond). He answered my questions and then shared new ideas such as dinosaurs being a family with a big mama and little baby!
All this language came from following his lead and commenting rather than prompting!
As an early communication professional trained and licensed by the Hanen Centre®, I help young children and their families connect and communicate with confidence using the Hanen Centre® SPARK Communication™ and 4Is to Socialize approaches. The SPARK Communication™ approach teaches you interaction strategies to accelerate your child’s early language development. The 4Is to Socialize approach teaches you strategies to support engagement and communication with your child with autism or social communication challenges. Contact me to learn more about how we can work together to support communication in all its forms with your child and family!
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