A Simple Way to Encourage Communication at Home

One skill that is an important part of speech-language development is 'requesting'. Requesting involves using language to ask for objects, actions, or assistance through words, gestures, or other forms of communication. As children learn to express their wants and needs and begin to get those desires met, they begin to use more purposeful communication.

When children are learning to communicate, there are many strategies that speech-language pathologists can suggest to help facilitate growth. A simple strategy that I use with my daughter to encourage her to request is providing choices. This is also one of the first tips I provide parents as an SLP when their child is not yet speaking or only using a few words.

When giving your child choices:

• Make sure you have the items in hand or close by so that your child can indicate using multimodal communication (e.g., pointing, reaching, verbalizing, gazing, etc).

• Choose items that you know they enjoy or are motivated by

• I typically only choose 2 options when starting off

• Accept any form of communication when your child requests

• Always model the name of the item they choose

Remember to meet your child where they are at and reinforce their efforts. Some may only look toward the desired object while another child may reach or point to the item they prefer. You can give them the item they want while telling them what it is, "Ball! You want the ball."

When can you provide choices?

I incorporate this simple strategy as often as I can. Below are some examples of when you can work this into your daily routine or playtime.

• When offering snacks- I choose a few things that I have ready to go for a snack or can quickly prepare and give my daughter the option of two (e.g., “Do you want raspberries or strawberries?”)

• When choosing a book- Grab two choices from the shelf and give your little one the choice, "Do you want 'Brown Bear' or 'Go Dog Go'?"

• When coloring or doing crafts- You can keep the crayon box off to the side and ask your child which color they want next, or you can offer them different drawing utensils (e.g., "Do you want a crayon or a dot marker?")

• When playing outside- I like to offer my daughter the option of play activities outside. We end up playing with a handful of activities anyway but by giving her the choices, I'm helping to promote her expressive language. (e.g., "Do you want the ball or the bubbles?" "Do you want to do the water table or pool?" "Do you want to play with chalk or the rocking horse?")

• When picking a stuffed animal for bedtime- I always let my daughter choose which stuffed animal she wants for bedtime. (e.g., "Do you want bunny or doggy?")

• When playing with toys- "Do you want to play with the school bus or the barn?"

• When getting dressed- "Do you want your pink dress or your blue dress?" "Do you want your white shoes or your pink shoes?"

As children can begin to indicate to us what it is they want or need, we can see less frustration and more confidence to build further communicative skills.

Check out the clips below of my little one making choices. In the second video, she surprised me by saying a word approximation of “purple” while we were painting.