Sabatoge Method
A great way to get your child to talk more is to try something called the sabotage method. It’s best to do this in a silly and playful way. When you’re playing with your child, you can knock down blocks, crash a car into something, or push the car off the side of the table. During this, you can model exaggerated language such as “oh no!”, “help me”, “it fell down”, “uh oh!”, “that’s not good”. This is a great way to provide some language they can use later functionally when something goes wrong or not how they expected. We can also “fix” the situation by grabbing the toy and putting it back, pairing it with language such as “I got it!, “I’ll help you”, “here you go”, “that’s better”. This will give them some positive comments to use when something is going right or to encourage a positive attitude when something turns out to be different than expected, which can be difficult for our kids.
Sometimes, our kids like to do everything themselves and it can be hard to get them to request help. One way we can model this for them is pretending you need help with something such as opening a box, opening the door, or picking something up that’s out of reach. “Can you help me?” “I need help” “can you do it?”, “help me open it”, “help me close it”. This provides them with models to use instead of getting upset AND it shows them that it’s okay to need help sometimes. Another option is to model “I can do it”, when they don’t want help to assist them with their independence.
The sabotage method is a great way to model advocacy to show them it’s okay to not like something. When eating something that tasted off, you can model “I don’t like it”, or use a toy to eat and pretend they did not like what they just tried. This carries over into different situations such as playing with friends
The sabotage method sounds negative, but it’s such a helpful and fun way to model language for our kids and get them talking more. It helps them learn how to stand up for themselves and let you know that they didn’t like what just happened or how to pair comments with the situation whether that be a negative, neutral, or positive comment. It helps get our kids out of “I want” only phrases, helps them learn how to deal with situations that are unexpected and what words they can pair the situation with, supporting their social skills.
Author: Amber Drew, C-SLPA