A short video by Ming @ Agents of Speech explaining why using rewards and play routines helps encourage speech in children (especially autistic children). The creator argues that expecting children to speak without external incentives is like asking them to 'work for free' and recommends modeling language without pressure while using natural rewards and routines to prompt repetition.
If every time you force them or push them to talk, and it's like someone pushing you to do something you're really uncomfortable with, you're not good at, then of course the relationship with the person who's doing that to you isn't gonna be great. Children don't understand that when you're doing that to them, it's good for them. Cut everyone some slack and start talking and modeling language as if you have no expectation. But if you do want your child to repeat after you and learn a word, you should use a reward. Or else you're asking them to work for free. And a lot of people say that's not natural. But in the beginning, when they don't know how to, you gotta present some external reward in order to them start talking to you. You can use routines. It doesn't need to be food or snacks. It can be like a play routine. Very natural. So if you want to know what other rewards you can use, you can check out on our channel to see what other routines we've been talking about, especially the play ones. You can look at the playlist.
