We had a foster sweetie join our home at 19-months-old. She was saying a few words and a few signs. She did not have enough language to communicate clearly what she wanted or needed. Her frustration came out in lots of tantrums and aggression. We started having her watch an episode of Baby Signing Time each day and we started using signs and the words for lots of the things we were doing. She was catching on very quickly to signs since her parents had already been doing some sign language with her.
Considering her age we'd often ask her to try repeating the word and sign after we showed her. I've noticed this is something we do more often than other families. We give them the words, phrases, or sentences that they could say. Even beyond that we ask them to repeat the words after us just to let them get practice saying and hearing themselves try it. "Can you say ______________?" We do not expect instant perfection, we just like to invite them to try. Whatever phonemes/sounds that come out of their mouth, we praise them for. The praise might simply be, "Thanks for trying," or "I heard you say the _____ sound in that word." Even as I type this, I realize that we talk about sounds in words in common conversation with our kids.
One thing we for sure do to help reduce frustration is to have her ask for what she wants. We modeled, "May I please have _________?" Whatever phonetic sounds she could get out, we praised her for, "Thank you for asking for _____________. That helps us know that you want __________." It started with her being able to say something like, "Mmm please apples." Now, after 7 weeks, she can say our modeled question.
When Poema was learning to talk, we came across the book, May I Please Have a Cookie? by Jennifer Morris. In this simple reader the main character, Alfie, learns to ask politely for what he wants. We used this as a trigger to help Poema remember to ask politely by asking, "Alfie, can you think of a better way to get ___________?"
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