Ming (Agents of Speech) argues that solely following a child's lead is slow and inefficient for teaching language. Instead, parents should (1) set up predictable, enjoyable routines that build anticipation and attach words to routine steps; (2) identify and use the child's preferred toys within those routines to introduce new objects or activities; and (3) schedule short, distraction-free structured tasks (5–10 minutes) to teach specific targets, rather than leaving all toys in free access. The video includes links to free courses and a private parent community for more examples and guidance.
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So maybe you've been trying to talk to your child at home, trying to narrate everything, describing everything that you do when the child does over and over again and you're sticking to single words and stuff and the things that the therapists are talking about online, which are all true and good. Sometimes it gets depressing when you're trying to over narrate yourself or talk so much that your child just keeps on ignoring you. So what do you do about it? And I got this question from parent who was inside of our private parents community. The link is in the description below if you want to join. And so we were talking about what to do at home, right? And previous videos. If you search how to teach a speech delayed child at home, we have a very detailed video about what to do in Agents of Speech. Our belief is that we shouldn't be only be teaching parents very naturalistic ways, meaning that we're only teaching them to describe things, create communication opportunities, whatnot, those things. A lot of people online have covered a lot. So I'm not going to talk about it here. Well, instead, what should we be focusing on? And that's setting up a routine. Setting up routines. So why do we set up routines? Everything in the world that you're trying to teach is like a routine, all right? Anything that has a context has a routine kind of embedded in it. So when you're teaching a child something new, it's always about explaining the routine, telling them how to play, telling them what this is about. No matter if it's flashcards or if you're teaching a child to write or read or whatever, there's always routines and rules. Right? So if a child doesn't understand the rules, it's very difficult to teach the language because language follows the context and. Right. I've talked about this a lot on Agent of Speech. But anyways, when you set up a routine, you have to focus on it. So what does it mean by setting up a routine? I'll give you a very quick, quick summary about what it is. So for instance, if your child likes playing with a certain toy, you need to make sure that if you do this over and over again, it's still very fun for the kid, number one. And also the kid understands that what's going to happen next and it builds anticipation and it's something that they really enjoy. Right? So if you have these three things going on, it's pretty easy to set up a routine. And what you can do next is to focus on it and start teaching words. Right. Once Your child knows how to anticipate the next step. Is now the time to teach a word that is associated with that step in the routine? Okay, so if you want to know more, you can just watch our free courses, which, by the way, the link is in the description below. Just put in your email, we'll send you an email, and you create an account login. Check it out. All right. And secondly, on YouTube, on our channel, we have loads of examples about routines. Okay? So the second point is we need to explore what your child likes and use it in a routine. So a lot of times when I see the advice that we, we usually give parents, and that's me as well back in the day, is that where, oh, what does your child like? Does we should start exploring what he or she likes in terms of play? Can we do some sensory play? Whatever. You still need to do that. And there are different words and jargons for this in aba, it might be called reinforcement, assessment or whatever. But all in all, it's just that you're trying new toys over and over, so it becomes easier because once you have set routines with the things that your child already likes, all you're going to do is swap out the tools and toys that you're using the same routine to introduce and pair those things with with a new toy. Right? So once you have that and it's like an egg or chicken kind of situation, the best thing, of course, is to use the thing that your child likes already to build the routines and then use the same routines to shove the new toys inside so that your child may or may not like that toy and therefore you can build more routines with the new thing. Right? So it all starts up with one routine, and then you use that routine to, to mix and match so that. And once you have that, it's pretty easy to teach your kid because the child knows what you're on about, what you're trying to do. And because of that, it becomes easier for them to absorb new materials, so on, so forth. Okay, so this is going to be a short video. The third point is you also have to have structured tasks set up to teach something specific. All right. A lot of, of times when I work with parents, when they're come on board coaching, the biggest mistake I see a lot of times is that the parents allow the child to be on the floor, right? Which is okay. But here's the biggest problem is that all toys are fully free access, meaning there are so many things that the child can touch, can run off and open another Shelf, take some toys out and whatnot. Whatnot? These things, these. It's a huge problem. Right? Why? Because if the therapist advice that you see online is always follow the child's lead. So if you don't have some structured tasks that the child is following your lead, it's very hard to put our agenda in front of children. And I'm going to get some backlash. Some people are going to say, how can you do that? Of course, you cannot allow the child to always follow your lead. Right. I'm not saying always. It's just that maybe five or ten minutes that it's really what I want out of a child. Right. Because at the end of the day, you do know best. We do know best about what the child needs in their life because they're so small and so young. So therefore, you do need some time for structured tasks. And what does that mean? Is there a time in the day where you can sit the child down and teach them something? Right. Without any distraction, they're sitting down nicely, whether on the floor or on a toddler's table chair. So on that you can teach a new concept or a new routine or a new play play routine or a toy, or even using flashcards under teaching materials. Right. So if you don't have that, it's going to be infinitely harder to teach a kid. Because once you set up structured tasks and have a very structured approach to teaching a kid something new, it'll be very easy for you to pick up. Especially when children actually do know and enjoy hang out with you and listening to you and following commands. If you don't have that, it's very difficult. All right, so that's what I recommend you to do if you don't always want to follow your child's lead. Because following child lead is depressing sometimes. It's always we're waiting for the child, waiting for the child. We're trying our best to engage the kid, but he or she doesn't really know what to do. So if you want to know more, you want to learn more, all you got to do is go to agentsofspeech.com course and you can go there, sign up an account, and we have all free courses that we used to sell and you can watch those to learn more about how to start doing these structured tasks and integrating the follow your child's lead, everything all together. All right, that's it for this week's video. I'll see you next week. Bye bye.
