There are a lot of things we use to encourage responses in Speech Therapy.
One of my favorite of these is to wait. Just wait. Give a little bit of information, or a leading question, and then we wait. This is something that I have observed is difficult for parents. But it can be so rewarding for language development in our young talkers. Giving a child a few seconds (sometimes you need to give as much as 20 seconds) to respond cues them in that it’s their turn to speak, gives them time to access the information you are requesting, and supports the notion that they are a integral part of the social interaction. 20 seconds is a long time. Count out 20 seconds, go ahead - I’ll wait.
That time is priceless for a child developing language. When a child is just building their lexicon they need a second to access the information expected of them. And even then they may come out with something related but incorrect. And that’s totally normal. In these instances I like to repeat the response with a little more information to help correct the response and then WAIT AGAIN.
Another example of SLPs utilizing the wait strategy is to encourage the child to request help. Another situation that I’ve observed to be difficult for some parents. Try handing your child their snack bag, but don’t open it. Then wait. This encourages your child to request help, further expanding language opportunities.
Waiting can be so powerful.