{"id":4983,"date":"2021-08-24T11:02:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T15:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parenttraining.chip.uconn.edu\/?p=4983"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:53:17","slug":"fading-your-prompts-when-teaching-your-child-to-use-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parenttraining.chip.uconn.edu\/index.php\/2021\/08\/24\/fading-your-prompts-when-teaching-your-child-to-use-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"Fading Your Prompts When Teaching Your Child To Use Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is better to work on teaching your child to use this general \u201csentence frame\u2019\u201d (Person\u2019s name<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0IS \u00a0\u00a0action word<\/em>) rather than teaching him\u00a0to memorize individual pictures. For this reason, you will be keeping track of whether or not your child needed prompts for the set of 6 pictures. It doesn\u2019t matter which pictures he needed help with and which he was able to do on his own. So, for example, if you do 10 trials, 3 of Mommy eating, 2 of Daddy reading, 2 of Daddy eating, and 1 of Mommy drinking, and your child needs help on 9 of the trials and does 1\u00a0all by himself, you would record that he was independent and correct 1\/10 times or 10%. You don\u2019t need to specify which pictures in the grouping were correct and independent and which he needed help with. Just rotate through the pictures and keep track of how many times in each set of 10 trials your child is able to make a sentence to describe the picture, all by himself. For a while, you can expect that you will need to help him most of the time. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Once your child is able to use a sentence to describe any of your first 6 pictures, add another set of 6 pictures. You could add a third familiar person doing these same three actions, or you could add pictures of the same two family members doing a different set of actions, for example cooking, sleeping or washing. And you can continue to add groups of three to six of the pictures you have taken for this teaching program until your child learns this sentence frame well and can use it to describe even new pictures accurately, in at least 8 out of every 10 trials.<\/p>\n

Do not worry about adding the object of the action. For example, in this case, you would not worry about having your child add the word \u201capple\u201d for the time being. You can work on expanding the sentences once your child has the basic idea down first. Of course, if he adds it in spontaneously, praise him\u00a0enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

Fading Your Prompts<\/h3>\n

Once your child can say the sentence without any prompting, begin to eliminate one picture prompt at a time. For example, in this case you could begin by just continuing to hold up the picture of Mommy eating the apple in front of your child, instead of placing it on the table, to the right of the \u201cis\u201d card. Ask your child to tell you what\u2019s happening. Then point to the other pictures, just as you did before, and when you get to the space after the \u201cIS\u201d card, just point to the empty space. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Wait for a second or two and if your child does not say the word \u201ceating,\u201d prompt him\u00a0to do so using a verbal imitation prompt. \u00a0You can do this a couple of times in a row, fading your prompts across successive trials.<\/p>\n