AAC Strategies

Aided Language Stimulation

Follow Your Child's Lead

Teaching Core Vocabulary

The Art of Waiting

Hierarchy of Prompts

Daily Routine

Personalizing Your Child's Voice

I Always Have My Voice

Expanding Your Child's Utterance

Home:

Morning time/getting ready – Child says, “Brush teeth.” Adult expands and says, “You are brushing your teeth.” Adult extends and says, “You are brushing your teeth with your blue toothbrush.”
Bath time – Child says, “Wash hair.” Adult expands and says, “I will wash your hair.” Adult extends and says, “I will wash your hair. I will use shampoo.”
Dinner time – Child says, “More cookies.” Adult expands and says, “You want more cookies.” Adult extends and says, “You are eating chocolate-chip cookies.”
Playing outside – Child says, “Fall down.” Adult expands and says, “You did fall down.” Adult extends and says, “You did fall down. Are you okay? Let's get up.”

Community Activities:

Grocery Store : As the child talks about items in the grocery store, he/she says, “Juice.” The adult expands the utterance and says, “Yes, that is juice. Drink juice” The adult extends the utterance and says, “We can drink apple juice later.”
Riding in the car : The child sees a person riding a bike. The child says, "bike.” The adult expands the utterance and says, “The boy is riding his bike.” The adult extends the utterance and says, “The boy is riding his bike. Look at him go!"
Store: The child is in the store and says, “Basketball.” The adult expands the utterance and says, “Look at the basketball.” The adult extends the utterance and says, “Look at the basketball. You can bounce a basketball up and down.”

Sabotage

Eating: During meals or snacks, rather than giving your child all his food at once, only provide him with a couple bites of each item. Then WAIT. If he is indicating he wants more, model the way you want him to request. For example, you could touch the word “eat” on the AAC system while saying “eat cracker please."
Change up your routine: For example, “forget” to brush your child’s teeth or “forget” to give your child a bath. Then WAIT. Wait for your child to communicate to you, then if needed model the language you want the child to use “Uh oh! Forgot bath! Need bath! Brush teeth!” etc. (Other ideas: place the child in a different seat at meal times, drive home a different way from the store, try serving dinner foods for breakfast, etc.).
Provide obstacles: For example, tell the child you are going to go outside…after you have put a chair in front of the door, or locked the door. Then WAIT. See what your child does. Wait for your child to communicate to you, then if needed model the language you want the child to use like “Uh oh! There is a chair in the way! Chair! Move!” etc.
Opening Item: When your child would like something from a tightly-closed bottle, jar, or packet, hold back from opening it for them. Wait for your child to indicate to you that they need help in order to open the desired object. Encourage your child to use the language that is acceptable for requesting help, for example “Help please”, “More water”, “It’s stuck!” or “Can you help me?”
Coloring: Set up a coloring activity at the table with your child. Have the paper ready, but hide the crayons or pens out of sight, such as in the cupboard. Encourage your child to begin coloring in. Wait for your child to indicate to you that they can’t color in the paper, as there are no tools to do this.
Lock Cupboard: Lock a cupboard or drawer at home that has your child’s various toys inside it. When it’s time to get the toys from the cupboard, allow your child a chance to try to open the door. When they are unsuccessful, pretend to not know what is happening, and ask them in a positive way to get the toys from the cupboard. Wait for them to indicate to you that they have tried, but the cupboard is locked. Ask them what you should do to solve the situation together, and use this opportunity to practice problem solving language together.

**Be mindful that there can be a fine line between providing a learning moment through sabotage, and creating a stressful situation for your child. If your child is having difficulty indicating to you what the problem is and/or a way to resolve it, turn the sabotage into a teaching moment. That is, demonstrate to your child the language that could be used in that situation to help solve the problem, and support them by solving it together! The teaching moment will help them to develop the skills in order to do this effectively independently when they have the language skills. Creating a ‘sabotage’ moment is powerful, but positive learning experiences are the ones that will lead to the greatest success!