The first step to teaching your child to talk is to show him that communication is meaningful by teaching him to indicate his wants/needs.  It is useful to teach communication in simple steps beginning with nonverbal forms of communication (pointing/touching) and slowly shape the form of communication into verbal communication.  The tricky part is that it is sometimes difficult to know what your child wants.  That's okay.  If you don't know what your child wants, then you won't be able to use this teaching strategy for those situations.  The good news, by using this teaching strategy your child will learn to communicate better and will be more likely to effectively communicate to you what he wants in more situations thereby reducing or even eliminating those frustrating situations when you don't know what he wants.

Identifying Natural Teaching Situations
A natural teaching situation will be anytime your child demonstrates any signals that he wants something and you can correctly identify what he wants.  Some examples may include, reaching for a cup to signal he wants a drink, crying when he can't reach a toy, looking toward a toy or item. 

Teaching a Communication Response
When your child demonstrates a desire for something, teach your child to communicate this by withholding the item and gently guide your child's hand to point to or touch the desired item.  Give the item to the child after he points/touches it.  Slowly reduce the amount of assistance you are giving your child until he begins to point/touch independently. Continue this process until your child is consistently pointing/touching items to indicate his desire for the item.  Then, you will begin to teach your child the next step.  Here are some examples of teaching steps that may be used (you can skip steps or add steps if needed)

1. Pointing/Touching
2. Signing or Pictures (this step may be added for infants who have not developed language or for older children with language deficits)
3. Vocal approximations to the word (saying "buh" for ball)
4. Saying the name of the object ("ball")
5. Saying the name of object and please  ("ball please")
6. Asking or stating desires ("May I have ball, please?" "I want ball")
7. Adding details about desired object ("May I have the big ball, please?")
8. Requesting items by their function ("May I have something to write with?")

When teaching your child to talk, begin by demonstrating the response you want, then you will slowly fade out the demonstration as your child starts to respond correctly.  Here is an example:

Child reaches for ball
Parent grabs ball and says, "ball"
Child says, "ball"
Parent says, "That's right, ball"
Parent hands the ball to child

Child reaches for ball
Parent grabs ball and says, "b"
Child says, "ball"
Parent says, "Yes, ball"
Parent hands the ball to child

Child reaches for ball
Parent grabs ball and waits
Child says, "ball"
Parent says, "Yeah, great job, ball"
Parent hands ball to child

Create Multiple Learning Opportunities
We learn best through repetition, so the best way to teach your child to communicate is to set up the natural teaching situations so that you can provide multiple learning opportunities.  In most cases, you can do this by breaking the item/activity into smaller parts.  For example, if your child requests juice, give him a small amount to create the opportunity for him to ask again.  If he requests a toy, let him play with it for a small amount of time (e.g., 30-seconds), then remove the item and show him how to ask for it again.  Repeat this process until he is no longer showing interest in the item.    

Another way to increase learning opportunities is to set up your environment so that frequently desired items are out of reach from the child (but still visible) so that he has to have your assistance to get them.  If his favorite toys are readily accessible, the need to communicate his desire for them is removed. 

A few tips

• It's important to remember that this teaching strategy can only be used when your child has a desire for something, so if he does not appear interested in the item/activity do not force him to continue.  Wait until he shows interest again, or try to find something else he may want.

• Avoid teaching general words such as "more."  This will end up limiting his vocabulary because "more" will be used to indicate his desires across several situations.

• When using this teaching strategy, avoid asking questions to your child, such as "Which one do you want?" because this will prevent your child from learning to independently communicate his desires.  He will learn to wait until he hears you say, "Which one do you want?"  or some other question.  The cue for him to communicate should be the feelings of desire he is experiencing. 

• Your child may demonstrate some frustration (crying, tantrumming) when you initially begin the back and forth process of taking the item then giving it back for small amounts of time.  Don't worry. Keep at it, and it won't take long for him to figure out that all he has to do is communicate to get the item back. 

• If you continue to have difficulty getting your child to talk, you should consult a professional for help.