- Find words worth speaking for to teach your child. Please and thank you, don’t get you anything.
- Don’t give away anything for free! Snacks and pushes will cost your child an attempt at saying the word.
- Make it as easy as possible for your child to speak. Approximations should be accepted but also look at what would be the easiest sound or word to learn.
- Take away PECS and the IPad when teaching speech. Some disagree with this one, but they create too much of a dependency and they also slow down the
amount of times you can ask your child to speak. You want your child to make hundreds of attempts in the midst of exciting and motivating play. - Be helpful to your child. Why are you there? This is always a good question to keep you focused on the goal. Your child has to see you as an integral part of
his/her own success or they won’t speak to you. - Be immediate with the payoff when your child speaks. You can’t wait, and there should be a lot of energy that your child is exposed to around speaking.
- Use a playroom or place where your child can speak to you.
- Use movement as the incentive, this will set up the opportunity for more examples.
- Don’t go in and out of teaching speech, immersion is key.
- Make speaking fun! I know the point is often to get stuff, but that stuff should be fun anyways! You are not going to bore your child into speaking, trust me.
Print and put on your refrigerator and have fun!