Teaching children to talk (i.e., speech) is one of the primary aims of behavioral treatment in the first year. While focusing on functional communication through requesting (i.e., manding) is an important part of the process, there are other key strategies that often play a role in helping children who are primarily nonverbal become vocal speakers. Here they are:

Some people reject ABA therapy on the grounds that it’s nothing more than a system that bribes children to do what they should be doing anyway. We want a child to come sit down, so we call him over and then give him a cookie. We want a child to play with peers in school, so we give him tokens for each peer he asks to play and when he earns 10 tokens, he gets to go to McDonald’s for french fries.