Motivating Communication: A Guide to Teaching Children to Ask for What They Want

We are going to begin by just playing
with whatever item or activity it is
that you have for free.
Meaning we are not making our kids ask for anything right now,
because all we’re doing is just building up their motivation
so that they eventually want to ask for it.
But we would never teach somebody
to ask for something that they don’t want.
Now, once I see that my child is interested in what I have in some way,
shape, or form,
maybe they’re looking at it,
they’re reaching for it, they’re grabbing for it,
they’re pointing.
Now I know that I have the opportunity to teach them to ask for it.
Ja. Sjekk den UT.
Sjekk den UT. Sjekk den UT
shake. Shake it up.
Shake it up. Shake it up.
Shake it up. Shake it up.
Now, we’re gonna give some more of the item or activity for free,
meaning I’m not making her ask for shake every single time,
because that would be very effortful,
and she would likely become frustrated
and not interested in the activity anymore.
Once your learner has been reliably echoing you every time,
you prompt them to say the name of the item.
So you say shake, they say shake,
and you deliver shake. Now
we’re going to fade that prompt by teaching them how to say shake
in the presence of the item or activity
without you saying it. So this time,
what I’m going to do is
when Grace indicates that she wants what I have,
I’m going to prompt shake.
She’s going to Echo shake.
And now I’m gonna wait. I’m not going to deliver shake right away,
and what’s going to happen is Grace is going to say shake again.
So I’m transferring control from my echoic prompt,
meaning I say shake, and Grace says
shake to now Grace just saying
shake in the presence of the item or activity.
So I say shake, Grace says shake,
I wait, she says shake again.
And now she’s learning she can say it by herself.
Here’s what that looks like
shake. Shake.
Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake, shake.
Now, I’m going to give more of the item or activity for free,
and this time, when Grace indicates that she wants it,
I’m not going to do anything,
and I’m going to see if she says it by herself.
Shake. Shake.
Sure. Shake. Shake. Ready?
Please know that there’s no prescription
or magic formula as to how many vocal prompts you should do,
how many times you try to fade your vocal prompt.
Just know that once your child
or learner has been reliably echoing you
or saying the name of the item on the transfer trial,
then we always want to try and fade our prompt.
And if it doesn’t work, then we’re going to go back up a step
and deliver a more intrusive prompt.
But it’s a little bit of a dance between how much Do I have to prompt
to get my child to say something?
And how soon can I fade myself out?
And they will still be successful?
Just as quickly as we get in there, we want to get out.