Communication Temptations
A communication temptation is when you manipulate a situation to encourage someone to communicate, in this context children. An article by, Paul and Fahim (2014) gave so many good examples of communication temptations I just had to share! The examples compiled below are both from the article and from my own clinical experience.
Communication Temptation Examples:
Keeping toys to yourself, so the child needs to request them.
Blowing bubbles and then closing the bubble container and waiting for the child to request more.
Eating a snack without offering any to the child, to encourage the child to request a snack
Having the child pull objects out of opaque containers or boxes to elicit comments.
Engaging in a routine, such as rolling a ball back and forth, then suddenly stopping to have the child request “more ball” or “ball”.
Engaging in social routines, such as tickle games or singing songs and interrupting the routine or pausing to get the child to request its continuation.
Offering the child an object or activity she or he does not like, to elicit a protest (e.g. if you know they want to play with the ball first bring out the bubbles and see what happens).
Offering parts of toys, games or puzzles and withholding some, so the child needs to request more of them.
Pretending to misunderstand or not to hear a request or comment made by the child, in order to elicit a conversational repair by the child (you can either look confused or respond the wrong thing back to them so they are encouraged to correct you).
Suddenly doing something silly or unexpected, such as putting on a funny hat or silly glasses, to elicit a comment from the child.
Putting objects the child wants just out of reach so the child has to ask for it.
Giving the child less snack then they want to have so they have to ask for more.
References
Paul, R. & Fahim, D. (2014). Assessing communication in Autism Spectrum Disorders. In F.R. Volkmar, S. Rogers, R. Paul, K.A. Pelphrey (Eds), Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Vol 2. Assessment, Interventions, and Policy (4th Ed, pp 673-694).
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