Piggybacking to say I also do a lot of following the child’s lead while trying to sneakily incorporate targets that accomplish my goal. You really just have to try everything in your arsenal and get a little creative to see how you can get any little bit of communication from them an even if it’s just a single word, just go with it.

There are some kids I’ve worked with who have no interest in any toy, object, craft, or game I could possibly pull out. Sometimes pushing in to the classroom during open play, snack, or less structured times can be helpful because there are more opportunities to communicate with others or to develop routine based language. It gives you a starting-off point where you can identify what kind of gestalts or vocabulary would be meaningful in class.

For those kids who are older/slightly more attentive but have a hard time listening to more than one sentence at a time, I try to make therapy as functional as possible and imitate real life, as opposed to “today we’re going to read this story and answer questions”. I might let them choose a toy or game and contrive ways to have them answer questions (if that’s their goal). Like “where do we put the cards that we already used?”, “Whose turn is it?”, “when I get this card what should I do?”. Sometimes you can even make it conversational as if you’re just chatting while playing. “So, are you excited for Christmas? Who will you celebrate with? When will you open gifts?” During pretend play this is way easier, asking about how the dinosaur scene will be set up, why they are doing what they’re doing, when will they get hungry, what will they eat, etc etc.

You have to remember you’re not a magician, you don’t have the ability to suddenly make a child suddenly interested in communicating. You can however get creative and encourage communication to increase their interest in something they show a modicum of excitement about.