Ming from Agents of Speech explains why asking speech-delayed children to speak backfires. Instead, caregivers should model simple one- or two-word labels, drop to sounds when words are too hard, and use playful sound games to make talking easier and less frustrating.
Keep modeling what you want to hear. I see that a lot of parents will keep on asking and prompting the child to speak. Problem with it is that speech delayed or language delayed children, to be more exact, they do not have the prowess, the ability to talk. So if you keep on repeating something without helping them to do something easier, or giving more hints or making it more achievable for him, it's going to be frustrating and they're just going to ignore you. So that's why you need to keep on modeling what kind of language you want to hear from them. And that doesn't mean that you speak in whole sentences or ask questions or give commands. What you should do is to describe in like one or two words at the level that your child is operating at right now. Maybe your child isn't speaking. Therefore, the best way to give them the correct language input or modeling is one word. And if that one word is too difficult, just try sounds, right? Do some sound play if you don't know what it is. Sound play is just adding weird sounds and babbling to things that we're doing.
