Targeting Requests and Sentence Length at Home (Part 1)
- All Care Therapies
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
If your child is working on requesting wants/needs, here are some great ways to work on that at home! Take their preferred object and put it out of reach. This allows your child to see the desired toy, but be unable to grab it. Your child may reach for it, climb to get it, or motion for you to get it for them. This creates the perfect opportunity for you to model requesting for your child. How you respond will vary on what utterance length they are at. Below are some examples!
1-word: if they only say 1-word, expand to two words. For example, if they
say “toy!” you can model back two words “want toy.” Once you model “want
toy” you can say “child’s name says want toy”. An example of this would be,
“Milo says want toy”. Then repeat “Milo says....” and wait for them to respond.
This wait time is called an expectant wait.
2-word: if they only say 2-words, expand to three words. For example, if
they say “ want toy!” you can model back two words “I want toy.” To target your
child expanding utterance, model and use expectant wait. An example of this
would be, “Milo says I want toy”. Then repeat “Milo says....” and wait for them to
respond. It is important to over emphasize and draw out the word you are adding to the
child’s sentence length.
More opportunities to work on requesting would be:
- While playing with toys or building a toy, hold
one of the pieces in your hand and when your
child tries to take the toy from you, model and
use expectant wait time.
- Tightening a toy/ jar too tight so your child needs
to ask for help to open it.
If you have any questions, feel free to talk to your speech therapist at your next
appointment!
Sources:
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