Do you believe in withholding food or other reinforcers such as a favorite toy to get a child to speak?
In the SCERTS Model, we design activities and learning environments to encourage and entice social communication, including speech as one mode when appropriate, so that children can develop their own goals and achieve their goals in communicating. When children are well regulated and motivated, we do believe in “upping the ante” in the expectations for how children will express intentions, moving “up the ladder” to more sophisticated symbolic means of communication (e.g., gestures to pictures, pictures to words, and on to more sophisticated language). However, this is done in a reciprocal and supportive manner with clear models provided by partners. We would never intentionally create a stressful circumstance that would result in a child’s becoming dysregulated, as often is the case when withholding food or desired items is used to elicit speech or when demands are made for a child to speak.
