Ming from Agents of Speech explains how play routines create natural moments for kids to use language. Wait until your child can anticipate the routine before prompting them to talk, and frame it as task explanation rather than direct teaching.
A lot of times why we need to focus on play is not because we want to teach the play skill, so to speak. It's because we want to. Later on, when they're interested, the language will come because then the language functions will come out. For instance, if you're doing the wrong thing, you're doing the wrong thing in the play routine, then the child will have to clarify, right? Will have to tell you that's wrong. If there's something missing in the play routine, then they will have to ask questions. If you don't allow the child to do something, you can teach. Why? Because questions, right, and all these language functions will only surface when you have a context and play plays a real big part in it. Other than that, parents will ask, oh, how about the prompting? Do I prompt them to talk, how to ask questions, and so on. You don't really do it until the child knows exactly what's going to happen next and can anticipate the next step. When we're teaching play, teaching to context, we don't even care about what language goals we're going for. In the therapy world, this is called task explanation, right?
