Many well-meaning adults fill silence with questions: “What’s this? What color is it? Can you say ball?” For a toddler with autism who isn’t talking yet, this can feel like pressure — and it often shuts communication down instead of opening it up.
There’s a simpler approach with just as much research behind it: narrate instead of quiz.
Why It Works
Constant questioning puts a child on the spot and turns play into a test. Narrating — simply describing what’s happening, out loud, without demanding a response — surrounds a child with language tied to something real and meaningful, without the pressure to perform. This kind of naturalistic language modeling is a core piece of approaches like Enhanced Milieu Teaching, which has research support for building toddlers’ language skills.
How to Use It
You’re not teaching a lesson — you’re narrating a moment, the way a sports announcer describes a game.
- Pouring juice? “Pouring juice. Juice is cold.”
- Pushing a car? “Car goes. Fast car!”
- Washing hands? “Wash, wash, wash. All done!”
- Instead of “What’s this?” — just say the word: “Ball.”
Notice there’s no question mark in any of these. You’re modeling language, not testing for it.
A Few Tips
- Keep it short. One to three words at a time is easier for a toddler to absorb than a full sentence.
- Match your words to what they’re already doing or looking at. Language sticks best when it’s tied to the moment.
- Repeat often. Toddlers need to hear a word many times, in many contexts, before they use it themselves.
- It’s okay to sound repetitive. Narrating the same routine the same way, day after day, is what makes the words predictable and learnable.
For Students with IEPs or Speech Goals
If a child has speech-language goals, ask the SLP which words or phrases are currently being targeted, and narrate using those same words during play and daily routines. Consistency between home and school — hearing the same words modeled the same way — helps a toddler make the connection faster.
The Bottom Line
You don’t have to quiz a toddler to teach them language. Simply describing the world around them, in short and repeated phrases, gives them everything they need to start connecting words to meaning — without any pressure to perform.
Based on research on naturalistic language modeling and Enhanced Milieu Teaching, an approach with research support for building communication skills in young children with language delays, including toddlers with autism.
