Practice Having More Interactions

Your child needs any kinds of practice that increases his interacting- with actions, gestures, sounds, words.

Absolutely do not ignore his gestures - they are important building blocks to speech. Instead of ignoring them, respond with a word that fits the situation.

And do not INSIST on any communicative behavior--insisting on difficult communications will only turn the child off and decrease the interactions he needs.

Your child is mainly a person of action and sounds so support them, and translate them into words.

Far too many professionals are pushing a child to words before they are ready. The developmental path starts with interaction, nonverbal communication and then, and only then, words.

But be sure to match what he does in actions and sounds then show a next step.

The key is to do whatever gets him to interact more and stay for more turntaking.

I have known many children who have been submitted to developmental programs that force the child to do the difficult and ignore the natural building blocks. Those children often shut down and resist simple interactions when parents try to be teachers rather than matched and balanced partners.

So many approaches to building speech ignore the many things children need to do before speech such as social play, action interactions, sounds, sound interactions, imitation, reciprocal turntaking, acting like partners,and communicating in any ways possible.

Unfortunately too many professionals believe that the beginning of communication is the word. It is definitely not and if you force words, the child will become a rote talker or not communicate at all by interacting less.

Help a child interact more with possible people and they will develop socially useful speech.

I have seen many children regress and hide away from the interactions they need to learn to communicate. Children do not learn to communicate by being taught, they do so by interacting with matched models throughout the day.

Any one who expects a child will learn to socially talk in speech therapy one or two times a week are dangerously mistaken. Do not give your child away to strangers-- you parents are the answer in every interaction.

I am absolutely serious about this. Too much valuable time is lost trying to teach a child to only perform and not to really communicate.

Dr. Jim MacDonald

macdonaldj86@gmail.com