Page 50 - Routines-Based Early Intervention Guidebook

Routines-Based Early Intervention Guidebook

Teaching how to make requests 3.4

Children exhibit inten onal communica on from a very early age. It is not always
verbal communica on but it is inten onal. Think about a one‐year‐old pa ng his mother’s

leg and pu ng his arms up to request to be picked up. While ul mately we want our children

to request what they want and need verbally, we need to appreciate their use of non‐verbal

requests as well. They are communica ng!
One thing you need to repeat over‐and‐over again un l it is a truth for you is that the

words that children hear drive the words they know and the words they use. If you want a

child to make appropriate requests, he needs to see you doing it and needs to see children

her age doing it also. The more children hear words, the sooner they internalize the words,
understand the words, and use the words. So when your child is in their non‐verbal

reques ng mode, give them the words they need to express their wants and needs. If they

want to be picked up, you could say, “Up?” or “I want up.”

Con nuum of Making Requests

For many of us, the idea of non‐verbal requests being the road to verbal requests is

new. Let’s take a look at a con nuum of Reques ng to Appropriate Verbal Requests. Our job

is to iden fy where our child is func oning, try to get them to do more of that, and then work
on the next level up.

1. No requests—not very common. Most prevalent in children with socio‐pragma c

difficul es such as Au sm Spectrum Disorder.
2. Non‐specific requests— moving towards an area they want to go to. Observing an

object or area with the eyes. Typical of babies exploring.

3. Ge ng a en on—making eye contact, verbalizing, or calling a en on to oneself.

The reason the child is calling a en on might not be apparent.

4. Pulling an adult—Inten onal, physical, body mo on in a direc on. Can be
accompanied by sounds, crying, or words.

5. Poin ng non‐specifically—O en used in nega on, a child points in a direc on

away from something they do not want or something they want to get away from.

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