In a similar way, parents can manipulate situations or pretend that they don’t know what the child needs when they are only using single words to communicate what they want. If a child says, “Cookie” while reaching for a cookie, a parent can say, “Cookie? Yes, that’s a cookie. What about the cookie?” If the child continues using single words, the parent can initially help out by saying, “Do you want the cookie? Ohhh, now I understand. You can say, ‘I want cookie.’ Can you try?” You may have to start off my modeling each word and prompting your child to repeat you, such as:
Parent: “I…”
Child: “I…”
Parent: “Want…”
Child: “Want…”
Parent: “Cookie.”
Child: “Cookie.”
Make sure to give lots of praise for any verbal attempts, and BE CONSISTENT throughout the day with this approach. Eventually, cues for each single word should fade and the child will communicate “I want ____” on their own.
For children whom this is difficult for or for children who benefit from additional visual cues, the use of a sentence strip can be a helpful tool in the journey toward expanded speech. A sentence strip contains written word and/or picture cues to help increase a child’s understanding of the utterance and their ability to segment, or break up, all the words required to make the request. An example of a sentence strip below depicts sign language for the target words:
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