Once a child has learnt main important vocabulary which includes Nouns and verbs.

It’s time to work on communication skills through different ways. Though I always recommend to work on communication skills from the beginning. Now how to work on communication skills

First we need to target basic needs that is food, water, sleep, play, pain and toilet. You can use my choice board given here https://speechtherapys.com/2022/01/05/communication-board/or you can make a new one by printing pictures, cut and paste them according to specific needs of your child.

Teach pointing the correct picture and say verbally ” want water” . At the beginning a parent or caretaker needs to model by pointing and saying verbally. Keep doing till the time child starts demanding through the picture and later or together he may use one word ‘water’. Encourage by giving water immediately and motivate by praising.

Now move on ‘I want…’ and expand the vocabulary by adding eatables, drinks, activities. You can use my short videos to make child listen the phrase or sentence multiple times and you will notice that gradually or sometimes instantly children uses same words and sentences here is the link of some short videos:

I WANT PHONE: https://youtube.com/shorts/MTitxY1jAco?feature=share

I WANT CHIPS video: https://youtube.com/shorts/XWJsylCuUKM?feature=share

There are few other videos of ‘I want..’on my you tube channel. You can see if that helps. You can let me know need of your child and I will make a video according to the need of your child also.

When you practice through the choice/ communication board and child should watch videos regularly, I have experienced with thousands of children, your child/student will start expressing his/her needs verbally. You have to be patient in terms of time, in terms of word whether he/she is using one word initially or a phrase or a sentence. Each child has his/her own pace. But this is evidence based practice with results assured.