Thinking in Building Blocks for Speech | www.agentsofspeech.com/micro

Hey. Hey, guys. Today we're going to talk about building blocks. And it might be quite a strange topic to talk about when teaching children who are delayed on the spectrum and in need of therapy, right? In need of speech therapy, in need of, you know, ABA therapy. Those two are the things that I know more about. So I'm going to talk about it in that way, okay? And the reason why I am doing this, reason why I'm talking about blocks, is because a lot of times when we teach children, we always think about what we call a bottom up approach. And what that really means is that we go from the smallest possible viable action from a kid and then slowly build it up until it becomes like a word, a sentence or whatever, okay? So that's really what we call really a bottom up. We take the smallest chunks and we try to go up from there. And why we like to do this is because it's easy to measure, it's easy to see, it's easy to tell people what we're teaching about. Right? And what is happening in a lot of cases, right, is I see parents getting stuck and saying, hey, my child doesn't want to talk to me. And when they talk, it's only when I'm holding something of value. Okay? Which is fine. But they lack the initiative to actually say it themselves. Every time the parent has to ask a question or create a scenario where they're holding chocolate or something, and then the child comes over and says like, oh, I want chocolate or something. Right? So the problem here is that it's not just like bottom up you're doing. You're teaching the blocks of language. Okay. Like, okay, I get that. As long as you can get your child to repeat one word or two words or three words and then make it into a sentence, you feel happy, right? That's cool. I feel happy too, if that's the case. But it's not about what they say. It's about how they, like, how it became to be. Right? And what are the blocks that you cannot see or, you know, if you didn't do this enough, Right. If you. How to say this, how to put this. Well, the thing is, there are more blocks than you think there are. It's not only like answering questions, saying words and sentences or whatnot. There are other stuff, okay? And we've talked about this on this channel or on this Facebook page or on this Facebook group. That's the three places we're going live right now. And the thing is, the blocks that you cannot see are the ones that Are most important. Okay, so what are those blocks? Those blocks are actually what we call language use. Okay. What is your child using the language for? Okay. And today I was just, like, making up this new class for insight agents of speech.com, right? And I was thinking about there must be a right context for a child to use that word or anything. So some of the building blocks that you should target should be different contexts, different ways of using language instead of just the words. Okay? Or else what you see is a very slanted type of structure and the language development, right? Because you're only putting blocks over here. You're only caring about, like, the amount of words, the amount of the length of a sentence and so on. So you see this very, like, slanted thing. And I see a lot. In a lot of children who are on the spectrum, right. Who go through aba. I'm not like, poo pooing on them, right? I'm not saying that, you know, ABA sucks. I like aba, okay? Don't get me wrong, okay? I came from that world as well. All right? And for aba, who. People who don't know, it's applied behavioral therapy. And why people don't like is because people say that it's very robotic, it's very old, it's very traumatizing, it creates bad experiences for children and so on. But okay, what the misconception is that you should really focus on one building block at a time. So let me say that your child wants something from you. From a parent who asked me today, my child knows. My child only says, give chocolate whenever I hold the chocolate up next to me and I say it. But when I put the chocolate on the table, what happens is that he just tries to climb on the counter and tries to grab it, okay? Doesn't know how to use that language. When the mother doesn't present the chocolate right next to her face, okay? So therefore, the kid can only use, like, if you can imagine, like a building of building blocks, right? Of bricks and stuff is very slanted. The child can only use words and sentences in one context. So it's at the same place. And the bricks just keep going up. Only vertical. Only vertical. There's no horizontal growth, okay? There. Doesn't know how to use those words in another situation. That's the problem. Okay? So how you lay your bricks, your. Your building blocks is to lay it horizontally, okay? And what I told that parent to do is to look. Your child only knows how to say those words during. When you. When you present the reward right in front of you. Right. The problem is that he doesn't know how to initiate. So one of the blocks that people do not see is that initiating is also something that you need to teach initiating in the correct way, no matter what context it is. Some children who are on the spectrum are very rigid, as we know. And therefore, we need to be flexible. We need to program them. Program them to let them understand. I'm not saying in a very robotic way, right? I'm saying that. That it's our job to teach them in different scenarios how they should use language. Okay? So therefore what I told the parent was, put the chocolate on the counter and just wait, okay? And when he fails to climb the counter and try to get it, you present yourself as a solution without talking, all right? And then after that, what you want to do is to use the minimum viable amount of language in order to do. To do that language function, okay? So when the mother, like, switch back to. For when. When the child speaks, right? It's because the mother talks, Number one, it's like, oh, you want chocolate? Like, number two, presents a chocolate right in front of her face, okay? There are two conditions, okay? And these problems are actually prompts, okay? Without those prompts, he cannot say it, okay? So given we all know that to be true, right? What she should do now is after presenting herself as a solution, when the child is failing to climb on the counter to get the chocolate, she should use the minimal viable amount of language, which is, most of the time, gestures, okay? So sometimes, most of the time, we do not really start off with speech or words in the very beginning, because what we're doing is we're teaching the routine. We're teaching the language use, okay? We're teaching what the context, what the scenario is, okay? And when you do that, it's much easier for a child to get it, okay? Because he doesn't need to or she doesn't need to juggle too many things. Number one, it's already confusing because he wants a chocolate and doesn't know how to get it, so he's trying to use his body, right? Number two is that if he focuses to follow what you say or remember those words, right? It's going to be super hard for him, okay? Or her. Because he's focusing on your words and not on the situation. That's why you get a lot of children who are like parrots, right? They're able to imitate and they, like, keep on parroting, parroting, parroting. Just if you ask a question and then they repeat the question, right? And Also, that also relates to when children become like, they go into a tantrum because parents or, you know, whoever who is taking care of the child does not give up on telling them to say a word that they can't, which is they're trying every type of solution. So when we say about that we can think about. It's like, you need to give them a clear path to succeed. And most of the time, that might start off with gestures. Okay. Like nine out of ten times when people ask on Facebook and a lot of parents ask in the Facebook group every day on the page, every day, I try my best to answer them, but it would really, really let, like, really, really make me a little bit happier, is that everyone would search in the Facebook group before asking and PMing me. That would be a lot better for everyone because there is a knowledge base on this Internet for free. Even on YouTube, we've got a lot of videos, right? So anyways, we were talking about how this kind of don't know, like, when people are caregivers, parents, therapists, teachers, they don't know what they're working on actually, right? They don't know whether they're working on teaching the child to initiate communication in a certain context. Right. Or they're teaching them to, like, another language use, which is asking for help, okay. Or they're teaching them to use a context that they already understand and teaching them more language to be more appropriate. Okay? So all these things together, you will have to think, okay, what am I teaching now? Why is he or she being so frustrated? Is it because he doesn't understand the context? This building block, does he not understand? Is it that the words that I'm trying to ask him to say is too hard, Right? So you have to go one level down and ask him to say a word or even a sound. And then if a sound cannot, maybe a gesture, right? So you have to think about what horizontally, right? What are you doing? And then the language and the words are like, stacking up top. All right? So therefore, when you build, like, your structure or your wall or whatever, like whatever you call it, it's not like slanted, right? And that's what I see a lot. And especially those children who are very adept, very good at saying I want underscore something. I want whatever. I want whatever. I want, whatever, right? They can speak in two or three sentences. Two or three word sentences in the I want format, which really is like a carrier phrase. It's not really using two or three word sentences. It's just remembering a Phrase structure and then just using it for one context or one language use, as we call it. Okay, so let's look at. Hi, Bibi. Hi. From Malaysia. Great. Val Proven. Yes, thank you. Okay. Val Proven says, my daughter has ABA and timer. Most of the time my daughter comes to ask me for puzzled ice cream. She has no receptive or understanding before. Great. So ABA is doing her wonders, Right? Great. VB says no, no, just refers to what case. I. You know, I have no idea. Like, you know, like, a lot of. Most of the stuff I say works for, you know, just children who are speech and language delayed or on the spectrum. All right. I do not know what case you're referring to. Okay. I do not understand. All right, so Valprofen says, I try to explain to her what I'm modeling. Oh, well, the better thing about, like, the thing about teaching speech and language delayed children, especially like children on the spectrum, is that you don't really. You shouldn't really explain a lot. You should show. Okay, well, I always say. I always say show, don't tell. Okay. And back in the day when I just started, like, as a. As a therapist, right. My boss would tell me, my supervisor would tell me, he doesn't understand the task, right? He doesn't understand what you're doing. And then you're telling him to, like, say the words and do the gestures or whatever. He doesn't understand it yet. And no amount of explaining will help because they don't understand language. I'm guessing, Val proven you are saying that, you know, you're using your words to let her understand or something. What the explaining is, like, very important. But we need to do it by action. Show it a few times, do it, keep on doing it. Okay, so back to the case. Let me give another example. So if the child is asking for chocolate on top of the counter and he cannot get it right, I would put a few pieces of chocolate there. Okay. Just so that I have enough repetitions to show and explain. Right. Using. Just doing it a few times, explaining it, showing it. Look, I'm standing here. You tap me, I'll give you one. I'll do it a few times. And the number at the piece is so small that I. Whenever he just puts in his mouth, it melts and he wants more. Right. That's how you explain something by repetition. You show something to them. Look, put it here. I'm waiting. Okay, Tap. Oh, here we go. Good boy. I'm just waiting. And then he. He tries to grab onto the chocolate on the counter. I redirect him. Tap on me. Cool. Here we go. Right? So the more you do the things, like the more you explain it by showing by repetitions, the more the child will understand. And what I see a lot of the problems is that there's not enough repetition. Okay? How do you expect someone to remember a word or understand a situation with just one time? Okay. And that's why children get into a lot of tantrums. Because once. Now this is like, I'm not saying that everyone is like this, but a lot of parents who ask me will say, oh, what happens is like two things only. Number one is if they cannot say something, if the child cannot say something, then what happens is that the parent doesn't try to make it easier and therefore the child becomes like, throws a tantrum because he's trying other methods to get what he wants. Right? Another one is that the parent will say, oh, my kid will only say sentences or words in certain situations. And I'm like, okay, so what happens? So basically there's a whole routine dependency or like a prompt dependency on the whole interaction, right? So whenever the parent asks, what do you want? And then the son will talk, right? Or the daughter will talk. Before that, nothing, just silence, right? Like a mute. But when the mother asks, what do you want? And then some. And then the child will say, I want whatever and. And that's the end of it. Okay? And that's because you haven't done it enough times, number one, right? Have you like, you kept on doing it until he says I want something and you give him automatically without asking? Right. And secondly, have you worked on other, like other blocks, right? Other places of, you know, vertically speaking? Are you teaching him to use his words in different situations other than asking for stuff from you? Okay. All righty. So sorry if I'm screwing up the name, Please let me know. Okay? So she says, hi, my child is five years old now. She. He shows no sync, no sync between sentences, gives non sync answers for questions. I do not know what sync in this scenario means. Like he is an imaginary world. Well, I like the last part. I understand. So this part, you know, use rewards, man, use rewards. Make sure that you have something that he wants of his, like something of value that he likes so that you can use it to encourage him. All right, I'm not going to say the word bribe here because a lot of therapists are saying, ah, it's not bribing, right? It is bribing to a certain extent. But you know, make sure that, you know, you entice them to talk and give the correct answers. Okay. You cannot teach him what is correct or incorrect without a certain motivation. Right. There's no unrelated responses. Cool. Yeah, yeah. So you know, you got to have a reward or something that he wants. Right. And we talk a lot about that in the micro course. You guys can check it out@agentsofspeech.com Microsoft. Okay. All right. Val Proven says you're right. She doesn't understand everything and she does. Doesn't respond to questions. Yeah. So the thing about here, we talk about that in the micro course as well, like how to deal with questions, like unanswered questions. Okay. And if they don't understand you, what you should do, and I told you guys a little bit there, right. Is to keep on showing by doing it. Okay? Showing by doing it, doing it, doing it. Lead them by the hand, show them that, oh, by doing this, you will get what you want. By doing this, you know, I will solve your problems by doing this, you know, you can communicate with me and I will know what you want. And it's a lot easier than throwing a tantrum or whatever. All right. Val Proven says, yeah, we all used a timer. I learned it from one of the videos. It works. Yeah, use a timer. Use a timer for certain activities. It would be good, but at the end of the day, it's not a long term solution. You need always think about, like when you teach a child who is on the spectrum or delayed or teaching anyone to be honest, you want to as asap as soon as possible to fade out a lot of the cues, instructions, prompts. Okay. That's why we have children who are, who only talk. When the moms ask, what do you want? Or like what do you say? Or whatever, you need to think about how to get rid of those cues, prompts, questions. Okay. Or else they won't talk by themselves. They're always waiting for you to talk. All right, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, so I want to tell you guys something about, About prompt dependency. All right. Inside the microcourse. We do talk a lot a bit about that and I'll share with you right now what it is. If you're interested, just click the link and, you know, see for yourself. There's like over 800 people now in the microcourse and, you know, lots of good reviews and stuff. And so like prompt dependency is something that we all are. You know, if you get a response from your child by asking a question, then we are inclined, we are rewarded because we hear the child Talk. We're like, yes, I did it. Right? So we're going to keep on asking questions in hopes that he will talk more. But that's actually like a paradox, if you know what. Like, paradox is like something that contradicts with each other. Right. So every time you ask a question, you're initiating the communication for him. Okay. And when you ask a question, there's only a response that is one time or two times, Right. I mean, what are you going to do? What's your child going to do? Right? Write an essay to answer your question? No way. He just. He's just going to answer your question to get what he wants. Right? So what you need to do is think about, okay, do I need to take two steps back and teach some gestures first? Okay, we talk about that a lot in the micro course. All right. Why I always talk about it is because it probably solves, like, 90% of your questions. Because I've just been answering a lot of parent questions since even, like, way before the pandemic. Okay. It's not an online thing. It's all the questions that I get at the clinic, all nearly, like 80% of the questions I get from parents are. I've heard it before. That's why I don't even need to think to answer you. So take two steps back. Think about using gestures as a building block to teach other scenarios and contexts. Okay? If you feel that there's a bottleneck, if you feel that there's a scenario that he only talks during this time or that time, then I want you to think about, okay, why is it. Is it because he only recognizes that context? He's waiting for me to ask that question. He's waiting for me to do something. If not, if that's the case, then teach him a gesture for him to initiate with you. That itself is a new thing for him already. That itself is one of the building blocks that you need to teach. And remember, you cannot teach two things at one time. You can only teach one thing at one time. All right? I know it's counterintuitive because you might say, when I learn, I can learn a few things. Yeah, but your child isn't you, right? We can never use our own rulers on children. It's, like, infinitely difficult to say that, oh, because I can do it, then my child should do it. Right? If they were able to learn language in such a not systematic way, Right. If your child was able to just pick up language how we did when we were young, then he wouldn't need any of this. He would have done it. Trust me. Talking is a lot more efficient than throwing a tantrum. You know, pulling your hand, saying one word at a time. You know, you've tried it before in a foreign country. If you've traveled now that we're not traveling anymore, right Before Google Maps, remember? Like, if you're. I think we're all. All old enough, right before Google Maps, you try to ask a foreigner for directions. How painful is it? You want to express that, you know, you got to get there by, like, a certain time or which is the fastest way, or is this correct? All these things. You cannot talk. You can use elementary English, right? But if you go to France, you speak English. People just like, you know, they're not that forgiving. Okay? So that's how your child feels, right? They use their limited language to do the limited things that they know. Okay? But when you ask them to talk even more, it makes them even more anxious and they don't know what to do, and they revert to behaviors from before. Okay, so that's all for tonight. That's all I want to share. I want you guys to think in building blocks, and it's very hard. Especially, you know, sometimes I will also forget about this. To be very honest, I try to teach a few things at the same time, right? Because I don't have enough time. I only have, like, one hour of therapy with. With the child every week or something. Okay, but you're different. You have. Although you're. I know you're working and you must be very, very busy, but at the. At the most, you must have more than an hour with your child. Okay? In the morning or at night? I don't know. Or on Saturdays and Sundays. That's the whole day. Okay. Okay. So far, proven says, can I. How can I get my daughter to initiate show? Well, yeah, use gestures. Vau. Proven. You know, take her hand and help her do it. You know, you gotta be able to know when your child wants something. Okay? I'm sure that when she wants something, she will do something about it. And when she does something about it, whether it's, like, by, like, vocalizing like, ah or like, pulling your hand or whatever, or following you or coming next to you, change without talking, change it into a meaningful gesture that she can use with you. All right? And then slowly add the words for her when she understands that using that gesture is appropriate. All right? I don't know how to answer your question, to be honest in this situation. Okay. Marcel says, hi. My daughter is 4 years old. ASD Nonverbal. The therapist going to work in pecs. Okay. Many tips. Well, with very limited information, Marcel, I would tell you that pecs is not really that. So pecs is a whole different video, man. I mean, pax by itself, the whole thing is made to teach children how to initiate actually more than as a, you know, as a different mode of communication. Because I don't know why your daughter is non verbal. Okay. I really don't know. Like, if you ask me, like, I have no idea because I haven't seen her and even if I see her, I need like a few more times to actually know. But given your therapist has decided to use pecs, that's mean that at 4. Okay. That means that they tried to make her talk but not very successful. So they're trying a different means of communication. All right? And pecs is actually more of a way of teaching a child to like initiate with you. And that's a good one because if that's the case. Right, That's a good one because there's different stages. And pecs. Right. And make sure that your therapist actually knows using. Knows how to use pecs. Right? Because you need to go through a course which is like $1,000 USD. Okay. I didn't, but I am very fortunate that someone taught me how to do it who went through all the courses. So I'm very fortunate. But I will, if I have the chance, I will go back and get the certificate, I guess, when the. No, no more pandemic. Anyways, I digress. Okay. So pecs in itself, you know, there are different stages. Stage one is that the child has to give you the picture. Okay. And to qualify to go for a next stage, your child needs to be able to take the card and stuff it in your hand, even if you're not prompting, like nothing. Like, if she wants it, she takes the card and gives it to you and stuffs it in your hand. All right? That's the amount of initiation we're talking about. She is so motivated to get what she wants, she will take the card and throw it into your hand. And for children, that other like therapy techniques don't work. It's. It's good because if she doesn't look carefully and she doesn't know what she wants and doesn't identify the picture. All right? Then what happens is that, you know, what we will do is like we put one. Let's say that she likes potato chips. Who doesn't? Right? You have a potato chip card on text and then we have a plank One. So, you know, sometimes the child will like take the blank one and try to stuff it into our hands and then we give her nothing because there's nothing on it. So it's an indirect way to work on a lot of stuff. What we call pre linguistic skills. Right. So I don't want to get into too much of it. So any tips for this approach? The tip is, the tip is to get your child to want to stuff that paper, that piece of picture, you get what I mean, that picture into your hand. Then you have your game. Okay? If not, you're not game. It's very difficult. If you cannot get your child so motivated to give you that card, then you're not doing pecs correctly. Okay? That's all I'm going to say. I don't know enough, Marcel. All right, so that's all for tonight. If you have any more questions, you can put it inside of the Facebook group if you're watching. Okay. If not, you can comment on YouTube as well. That's very great. And at the same time, thank you so much for being a subscriber on YouTube and joining on Facebook, the group and Facebook. And also I would like to say that, you know, a lot of these tips and stuff are inside of the micro course and you can ask even more in depth questions once you go through all the basic lessons inside of the micro. And then you can join a different, a private Facebook group with like 800 other parents who have gone through that micro course. And it's super helpful because they know they're committed. They would go through an online course just for their child. So you're talking to people who get you. Okay, so that's all for tonight. See you guys. Hopefully inside of the course and inside of the private Facebook group. And that's all for tonight. Keep me posted on questions. See ya.