Whether you have a toddler who can't talk yet, a preschooler with the speech delay or
an older child with nonverbal autism.
The same toddler strategies work to increase talking and decrease tantrums.
So today I'm going to give you 5 strategies to get your child to talk.
Hi, I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom board certified behavior analyst and bestselling
author of The Verbal Behavior Approach.
Each week I provide you with some of my ideas about turning autism around and also helping
kids with speech delays or early warning signs of autism with some tips and strategies.
If you haven't subscribed to my YouTube channel, you should do that now.
So last week within my toddler course I have a membership program and a portal where we
interact.
And last week I saw this post that just like literally made my whole week.
It was a post from a grandmother who is in my toddler preschooler course at the moment.
And she posted a video of her grandson saying apple, um, as he was taking a picture of an
apple and putting it into a shoe box, which I'm going to talk a little bit more about
the shoe box program coming up, but this little boy who was about 2 years of age, I'm not
sure if he has a diagnosis of autism, if he's just speech delayed or if the grandmother,
um, was just worried about his language and started the course.
But she posted that her little grandson, um, was completely nonverbal prior, just 2 weeks
prior to that video.
Um, and now he was using several words and the techniques that, uh, she was learning
within my online course was, was making all the difference.
So I know I've been in the autism world for 2 decades and I know these are the same techniques
that work for kids, older kids with severe autism, um, who have a language ability of
a 1 to 4 year old child.
So it makes sense that these same techniques work for kids with just speech delays, um,
or not even speech delays.
I've given, um, instruction on how the shoe box can be done by just grandmothers who are
watching their grandchildren over a weekend.
Um, it's, it's just really good engagement is what I'm showing, uh, parents within my
toddler preschooler course, and it's starting to make all the difference.
So, so excited to see that, that post.
So it's one of the many messages and posts I read every week that show me that my easy
systems are working and that I should just keep going and trying to spread the message
that the same strategies work no matter what the age or ability level of the child, or
even if they have autism or not.
I've done several video blogs in the past on techniques to get children talking more,
um, mistakes I see all the time, like focusing on sentence length or teaching kids carrier
phrases, which I avoid.
So you may want to check those videos now or later as well.
But today I just want to give you 5 quick strategies to get you started increasing talking,
uh, with any child.
So my note, my first strategy is you need to do a whole, uh, look at the whole situation.
Look at the whole child, meet them where they're at.
Is the child, not just looking at, at speech, that's actually strategy number 2.
Let's look at the whole child.
Let's look at the age.
Let's look at, not just speech, but can they comprehend simple directions?
Can they touch body parts?
Um, also backing up to, do they have allergies?
Do they have a diagnosis?
Are they waiting for a diagnosis?
Which is so heartbreaking as parents wait 9 months to 2 years for an evaluation to see
if it's autism.
Meanwhile, there's so many things you could be doing.
So looking at the whole picture, one of the things you really want to look at, um, that's
related is feeding any feeding issues.
I did a video blog on feeding pretty recently too, so you may want to check that out.
But if you show me a child with speaking problems, um, I can almost guarantee you're going to
have eating, drinking problems as well.
You, the child may only tolerate mushy foods.
They may only want finger foods, they may refuse utensils, they may be addicted to a
pacifier or bottle or even a spill proof sippy cup.
Um, they could then have major problem behaviors as well during feedings.
So we want to look at all of those issues as the first assessment and number 1 strategy.
Then we can look at the second strategy, which is to really assess that talking.
Uh, are they making sounds?
A lot of kids in the past get labeled nonverbal.
I've done hundreds of assessments.
I've worked with thousands of kids directly over the past 2 decades.
And a lot of times before I go into see, before I did my independent evaluations, I would
get told or I would read reports that the child is nonverbal.
But then when I probed more, so he says nothing.
He says, no sounds, no word approximations.
Never ever.
Well he does say mom occasionally and he, um, says beads or says car.
But, um, pretty much we, we don't hear any words.
Well when I hear that a child has any kind of words, um, in the past month or 2, uh,
I get excited because I think if you have pop out words, even if poor articulation,
not clear, you have something.
And um, a lot of times these techniques will work to, um, get those pop out words under
what we call it, echoic control, which means I say ball, you say ball.
Um, that's really important.
So first strategy is to assess the whole situation, especially feeding, um, and problem behaviors,
which will impact talking a whole lot.
Um, strategy number 2 is to assess the talking.
Are they saying any sounds, any pop out words, do you have instruction, echoic control, excuse
me.
Strategy number 3 is to stop talking in sentences and, and stop working on carrier phrases,
carrier phrases are things like I want, or that's a, and um, parent parents and professionals
get pretty excited when kids have 1 word utterances and they start increasing the demands and
making them say all.
And what it does is it increases demands.
It screws up articulation.
So instead of pretzel, which may sound like pretzel, now we have I want pretzel, which
sounds like I want pretzel, and then we're not doing anybody any favors here.
So um assessing those syllable lengths and uh, the, the, uh, where they're at, um, and
stops working or even talking in full sentences.
Okay.
So strategy number 4 then is to slow down your speech and pick those 1 or 1 or 2 syllable
words that are important to the child.
Maybe the child has, has said that in the past.
Words like mama, eat, um, cookie, drink, juice, milk, whatever they're drinking.
Um, 1 to 2 syllable words.
So instead of, uh, you want to be slowing down using a little bit more energy in your
talking.
So instead of saying, Johnny, let's go up the steps.
It's time to get a bath, uh, which the child may or may not understand.
Let's just say up, up, up, make it playful, make it a little animated.
And, um, as you're climbing the steps, emphasize 1 word, and that may make all the difference.
And you might start to hear more words.
And then the fifth strategy, um, is to use easy materials like potato head, in set puzzles
and um, my shoe box program.
Now I do have a free download about how to start a shoe box program, but it's basically
like get a shoe box, cut a slit into it and pick pictures of things that are important
to the child.
Mommy, daddy car, a ball.
If they like fruit snacks or, or banana or whatever, get pictures.
Either you take them yourself or get flashcards.
And then we're going to say the word slowly animated.
Like in step number 4, banana, banana.
And all the child has to do, he doesn't have to say it, even if he said it last week or
yesterday, you can't make a child say it.
So you just kind of continue to pair it up, make it fun and the child, all it has to do
is take it and put it in the box.
And if we get those procedures going with a lot of the easy programs that I have developed
based on all the science of ABA, um, a lot of times we get, uh, more talking whether
the child is young and not diagnosed with autism or the way, um, an older child who
is essentially nonverbal, but, um, may learn to speak in, in short 1, 2 word utterances
if we focus on that.
Um, so it has to be part of a comprehensive program when you get to an older child who
with nonverbal autism, with severe autism.
But when you're talking about a toddler who may not even be delayed or maybe just a little
speech delayed or maybe waiting for, um, an evaluation to see if they're on the autism
spectrum, time is ticking.
It's time to start and it's time to put these procedures in place.
If you would like to download a free download about how to get started with the shoebox
program, you can do that right here.
And if you liked this video, please feel free to share it, comment, give me a thumbs up
and I hope to see you right here next week.