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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