Ming (Agents of Speech) explains that professionals may give conflicting opinions, so focus first on observable, safe actions. He challenges the misconception that speech therapists "force" children to speak and clarifies that therapy teaches better ways to communicate and uses language-facilitation techniques that benefit all children. Parents are advised to model language and promote communication without coercion.
There are loads of opinions all over the Internet, all over the world. Even if you go to professionals that give you different opinions about the same person, about the same child, so it becomes very dizzy, very confusing for the parent. That's why I always say, if you don't know, then we will act on the things that we know first. And the things that we act on doesn't necessarily mean it will hurt the child in the short run. In speech therapy, I think it's a misconception that we force children to talk. We do not do that. We teach them a way to communicate. We give them a better way. If they don't do it, so be it. But if they do do it, then they get rewarded better. And that reward isn't materialistic. It's the comfort that they can now say something that we understand or that we react in a different way that gives them a sense of achievement, that kind of reward. Okay, when I say that, so don't take me the wrong way, what is it that you can do right now is that you need to teach a better way to communicate. You need to talk in a way that promotes language. It's not something that will hurt your child necessarily. Actually, all these techniques that we teach in speech therapy helps and works with typically developing children. These are language facilitation skills.
