I am sorry to tell you that the path of language is long and requires extensive, deep and consistent preparation in terms of motivation, attention and imitation. This will not only bring us the development of language, but the most important thing: autonomous learning, independence and constant evolution towards autonomy and personal development.

Our children not only have to learn language but many things such as motivation, attention and imitation before that. So let's go step by step!

THE MOTIVATION

To prepare them for the language you will have to find what motivates them. I want you to not only make a list of what your children like in terms of objects, food or activities, but to work on expanding that list . One of the things we work on in the initial therapies is to expand the things that motivate the child , which in an ABA methodology are known as reinforcers . We need them and they will be essential to work later, because they will be the anchor that will make our children want to be there with us.

In non-verbal children, this concept is so necessary because motivation does not follow the same parameters and is not governed naturally like ours. It is necessary to find what motivates our children and do an exercise of research and exploration to expand that motivational record much further. Some examples that can help you are: jumping in bed, blowing soap bubbles, playing with water in a basin, music, instruments, songs, sounds. Also primary reinforcers such as some food or object that they like to manipulate. Even the people themselves can be reinforcers for these children.

The idea of the work of these motivators is that, through them, we manage to develop much more social and verbal photos. If we establish an association while its motivator is occurring with signs, phrases, some words, these can act in the same way when we no longer associate them with those motivators.

In summary, the first step is to discover the reinforcers and then do a systematic job of giving verbal labels while we are doing them. It is very important that every time everyday moments end we resort to this exercise to ensure that the activities and objects become broad reinforcers, enriching the lives of our children and giving them joy. Because without emotion there is no learning or will; So keep this resource in your pocket so that it is always at hand.

THE ATTENTION

Attention is the second process that takes place prior to language. Eye contact will be the first aspect that we will work on with our non-verbal children, helping us with those magnificent reinforcers to carry out an exercise to reinforce all the eye contacts that the child makes. With this we seek interaction with our little ones: we have to find it and fix it. And this second skill is the response to their name, every time our children turn around when they hear their name we will be reinforcing those motivators so that it happens again.

The third aspect is the permanence of the object. This ability It is innate in children without disorders, but it is often not developed in our non-verbal children. It is very important to develop it to understand how the world works since when it does not develop well it generates a lot of behavior, stress and anxiety because children feel that the things they do not see or stop seeing disappear. That can happen with your favorite objects, with a person, with your mother.

To develop object permanence, peekaboo and peekaboo games are very important: hiding under a blanket or hiding objects inside a box full of lentils. We have to teach the child what happens with these objects, so it is very important to go progressively with these activities. We invite you to hide the objects partially first, so that they can see a piece and little by little end up hiding the entire object and even with a transition, that is, we hide the object out of the child's reach.

Although it may seem like a simple skill, the vast majority of non-verbal children have great difficulty developing it and it even generates a large percentage of the stress that the child suffers from this change in the environment that they are not able to understand. Assemble bags, trunks, sheets, boxes and dedicate significant time to developing the permanence of the object.

Finally, signaling is important in this attentional phase. Although it is not a skill that all children develop, it is true that achieving this skill greatly facilitates family life, communication with our non-verbal children, and their emotional health. There is no need to become obsessed with it and of course you have to give it all the non-invasive physical help possible: physically helping, but without forcing. We can manipulate the child's body and redirect it with our own, give verbal help by telling him what to do, help by signaling us, etc.

So at the beginning of the activities it is very important to give as much help as possible and reinforce. Little by little we withdraw the help and increase those reinforcers because he is already doing it on his own. Remember, motivation, attention and imitation. Let's go for the latter.

THE IMITATION

After having worked through the entire motivational phase, we are happy, active, animated and attentive. With these ingredients is when joint attention emerges, active communication within a framework where we learn something together, we attend to an activity hand in hand: there, in this context, is where imitation arises.

There are many types of imitation, some simpler than others, but it is strictly necessary for the child to have this ability. Imitation with the hands, arms, feet, legs, mouth, tongue, head... all this coordination will give us the basis to control all the prerequisite aspects of language. It is through this imitation that we will reach verbal imitation, that our child will be able to imitate what other people say and learn from the context of all the people around him.

Motivation attention and imitation; Families who are in the VICON Method are very familiar with all of these concepts and the importance of each of them. They are all progressive and evolutionary, so it is very important that each of them is strong, developed and active for language to emerge.