Ming from Agents of Speech explains how speech therapy works: therapists change the setting, prompts, and rewards to teach kids to communicate. The key is finding what cues and rewards actually produce the behavior you want, then adapting if the first approach doesn't land.
The first principles of what therapy are these? We're manipulating the setting, the prompts and the cues that we give, and also the feedback, the rewards that we give. The first step is always to find the setting, the cues and the prompts, and also the rewards that work. That teaches the child to get the desired outcome of behavior, most of which is to communicate and use words. So finding a setting, meaning that can we teach the child on the carpet. If not, if he's running around too much, the setting isn't working. So then we have to put them on the table with chairs and so on. So maybe that would work. Usually it would. And then you start to have to think about what rewards will get the deed done. You cannot always just lean towards letting the child do whatever they want. Finding the cues and prompts are the highest level things we can do as therapists. And that's why we provide value. Because if a child doesn't learn one way, we find another way.
