As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, I know how important language is for children with autism or signs of autism. I’ve worked with many nonverbal children both in person and through my online courses, and have figured out what works and what doesn’t when teaching a toddler to talk. These same techniques work for older kids with autism who may be considered a nonverbal child too. In the past, I’ve called kids that don’t yet speak “non-vocal” instead of “non-verbal” because technically even infants who cry for a bottle or for a diaper change are verbal. But lately, I’ve switched back to nonverbal because it’s what most people use to describe children with little to no speech. I’ve also met few children who are not saying anything as most nonverbal children often babble, many say a few words “here and there,” and some even talk in little phrases that are not functional.
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I am also an autism mom, having raised two boys, one with autism and one without. I’ve seen parents focus too hard on getting full sentences, or focusing on words instead of syllables, and essentially not seeing the forest for the trees when it comes to language acquisition. I’ve also made these mistakes myself in the past.
I prefer a holistic approach to get a nonverbal child talking. You need to start where your child is at and then build language by getting them asking for things they want. I’ve laid out some simple tips on how to teach a toddler to talk. If you are interested in going deeper and allowing me to really help your child, I suggest you register for one of my free online workshops: marybarbera.com/workshop.
When I first meet a new client, I like to assess them as a whole, not just on how well they can speak. Usually, if a child is having a hard time talking, they have other problems as well. If a child isn’t able to speak by age 2 or 3, they probably have problems with feeding. Maybe they still use a bottle or are attached to a pacifier. Maybe they still prefer mushy foods. In order to really help your child, I want to address these issues as well as help them learn to speak. Helping a child to eat solid foods or drink from an open cup will also help them with vocal speech. I also look at other areas such as sleep, potty training, comprehension, and problem behaviors.
A nonverbal child may not respond to your echoic control. Echoic control is when you are able to tell your child “say ball,” and they will say the word ball even if a ball isn’t in front of them. Gaining echoic control, and keeping a list of words that your child can say, will be a big part of how we teach your toddler to talk.
If you want to get your child to talk more, you need to learn my number one technique for increasing talking. That’s focusing on words that are important to your child. That list you created of all the words or sounds your child can say will be a great place to start. Which do they say most often? Which are the most necessary for communicating with you and other people throughout the day? These should be simple words like mama, juice, bed, up, down, etc. Notice that these words are all one to two syllables. The smaller the word, the better when first starting out.
That’s why I want to introduce you to my free download, The Shoebox Program. This is a seven-step process that you can use with your child to help them learn words in isolation. It’s called the Shoebox Program because you will use pictures of objects that are important to your child in a shoebox that you will be able to use as flashcards on a daily basis.
To download shoe-box guide, go to marybarbera.com/resources.
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