Ming from Agents of Speech shows how to use bubbles to encourage speech in delayed children. The technique combines bubbles with gestures to prompt kids to produce sounds and words during play.
If you're new here to agents of speech, we teach children to use a lot of signing.
A lot of gestures.
Imitation of actions and so on to build towards speech. And then slowly, we want the child to start saying some word approximates so.
The whole thing looks like this.
I will show them this bubble, and then I'll give it to the child. The child will be.
Like, ugh, I don't know.
I can't open it. It's too heavy. Tries to give it back to me. I hold it. I wait here, because there's already a routine of him knowing that I need to open it in order to blow. I'll wait here and I'll say something or do an action or tell him to do something, or may is just open. If he even makes a tiny squeak of noise like.
Like that. I was like, yes, open.
I'll open it, pull it out again, and right before I blow, I will try one more thing. Might be blow. It might be. And usually children will pretend to blow. Like now I will say, yes, nice.
Yes, blow.
And I'll blow. And then you can teach.
Baby steps towards words.
