Teaching speech: communication temptations at home

Can I tempt you to talk, little man?

Communication temptations! An expert strategy used by speech therapists that you can use at home to teach your child to talk! It’s a great talking technique!

Ah yes, the communication sabotage. A favorite of SLPs and now you can try it too. 

This strategy is all about creating opportunities for your little one to have to communicate with a little extra push to get what they want. No, I’m not going to advocate for something negative here. A communication sabotage helps promote a little extra communication by creating an opportunity during a routine or activity. The idea here is to set up a situation that prompts your child to need to use communication to get what they want. You can get creative and entice your child to communicate in any way they can (a gesture, a word, a sign, a point, etc.) and this encourages their speech development. The child learns the power of their communication! They will be motivated to learn to talk with this strategy because you are using an existing motivation (have something they want) to try and result in communicative effort from your child.

Let’s say your child has asked for a banana in whichever way they are comfortable with (maybe they pointed to it on the counter and looked at you). So, you grab their bowl and slice up some banana. You put one single slice in the bowl and give it to your child. This should prompt an expression of hey, I wanted a banana not a piece of banana so you look at your child as if you expect them to say something (it’s okay if they don’t) but wait just a bit and see if anything new happens. Do they even let out a loud ‘uhh’ sound this time as they point again to the banana? Do they shock and amaze you as you say ‘banana’ that you hear a ‘ba’ come out? If the child just points again and looks at you after you wait a bit, that’s okay you should give them their snack (after all, a point and glance is great nonverbal communication!).

Here’s another example: you’ve got their favorite toy where you use a hammer to knock balls down the slide, help your child set it up and gear up to play only you sneakily hide the hammer. Just hand the toy to your child and again look at them with an expectant look, when they should notice the hammer is missing and you’ve yet again sabotaged the routine. It creates the opportunity to use a new sound, or any sound to gain more attention to ask for what they want.

Don’t do this all day long, I think it’d get frustrating all around. But do think of daily routines in which you can just make something missing, or increase their requests for snack, just by controlling the environment and yes, planning a little sabotage. SLP’s are fond of the one piece of cookie at a time (hey, a whole cookie can become 10 tiny pieces according to an SLP) and we love to ‘forget’ pieces needed for a game, not because we’re forgetful but because we are experts at encouraging communication even in the smallest of ways. But what’s more motivating then something you already know the child is wanting?

Try it out and see if anything happens! Don’t force your child to do anything they can’t yet do, just help provide the opportunity for them to try. Creating opportunities does wonders! We don’t want to have the opposite impact here and make them afraid to communicate or talk. So read your child’s cues to see if they are ready for this or if they are frustrated. You can determine the best way to begin incorporating this expert strategy into your home routines but don’t feel you have to move too fast. It should be positive and not threatening. I know you can do it!

Leave a comment! Have you tried this? What happened? Have you ever noticed your child’s SLP doing this? 

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