10-Minute Speech Practice That Doesn't Require Sitting Still

Last updated 2026-07-11

What does it mean for a child to "comment" in speech therapy terms?

In speech-language pathology, commenting means a child produces language just to share attention or information, with no goal of getting something. There is no reward at the end of the sentence. "Mommy is running" gets you nothing. That is exactly what makes it hard.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association classifies commenting under joint attention and pragmatic language, both of which fall under social communication ^[1]. Requesting, by contrast, is an instrumental communicative act. A child who asks for juice, reaches for a toy, or says "more" is using language as a tool to get a concrete outcome. Children learn that one fast, often before their first birthday.

Commenting requires a child to believe that sharing observations has value on its own. That belief develops slowly, and for late talkers and many autistic children it can stall entirely. A 2014 study in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research found that autistic children produced significantly fewer spontaneous comments and more requests compared to typically developing peers matched on vocabulary size ^[2]. The gap was not about vocabulary. It was about communicative intent.

This matters for parents because it means drilling new words is not enough. You have to create a reason to comment.

Why do late talkers and autistic children often skip commenting?

The short answer is reinforcement history. Requesting works immediately. A child says "cookie" or points to the cabinet and a cookie appears. Commenting produces smiles, maybe a response, and zero cookies. From a behaviorally-shaped brain, that math does not add up.

For autistic children specifically, the underlying mechanism may be different. Joint attention, the back-and-forth triangulation between child, adult, and object, develops earlier and more easily in neurotypical children. Research by Mundy and colleagues has documented that joint attention deficits in autism are present as early as 12 to 18 months and are among the most predictive early markers ^[3]. Commenting depends on joint attention. If a child is not yet wired to share attention about something, they have no motive to comment on it.

Late talkers without autism may skip commenting for a simpler reason: they have learned to be economical with the effort speech requires. If every word is hard to produce, you produce the words that get you what you need.

There is also a third group: children with strong receptive language who understand everything but produce little. They often watch intently and rarely comment because commenting requires initiation, which is a different motor and social planning task than responding. Early intervention evaluation can help figure out which pattern fits your child.

What age should a child start commenting on their own?

Spontaneous comments typically emerge between 12 and 18 months, tied closely to joint attention development ^[3]. By 18 months a typically developing child should be pointing to share interest (protodeclarative pointing), more than to request. By 24 months, short verbal comments like "uh oh" or "doggy!" while watching something happen are expected.

The American Academy of Pediatrics developmental milestones list "shares things with others" and "shows you objects they like" as 12-month markers, and "says at least 50 words" paired with two-word phrases as 24-month markers ^[4]. Commenting is woven through both.

If your child is 24 months or older and comments rarely or never, that is worth flagging to your pediatrician or a speech therapy specialist. A brief silence on commenting is not a diagnosis. It is a signal to look closer.

How do you actually teach commenting step by step?

The core method is modeling without pressure, then creating expectancy. Here is the sequence therapists use and parents can replicate at home.

Step 1: Build a commenting habit yourself. For two weeks, say one observation out loud every two to three minutes during play and routines. "Oh, the car fell off." "Kitty is sleeping." "Grandma is cooking." Do not ask your child to repeat it. Do not look at them expectantly right away. You are just filling the air with what commenting sounds like.

Step 2: Pause and create a gap. After four to seven days of straight modeling, start the comment and stop. "Oh no, the block just..." Then wait five to ten seconds, watching your child's face. Some children fill the gap with a word or gesture. If they do, celebrate it as a comment even if it was not perfect.

Step 3: Use animated face-pairing. Exaggerated facial expressions pull the child's attention toward the shared event. A wide-eyes "Whoa!" before your comment tells the child something comment-worthy just happened. Over time the expression itself becomes a cue to notice and verbalize.

Step 4: Comment on what your child is doing to others, more than what is happening to objects. "You are digging so fast!" and "She is laughing at you!" teach the specific form the question asks about: commenting on people's actions. This is slightly harder than object-comment because it requires the child to notice another person's behavior as an event worth naming.

Step 5: Reinforce socially, never instrumentally. When your child comments, respond with enthusiasm and a follow-up observation. "Yes! He did fall! And then he got right back up!" Do not give a toy or food as the reward. The reward is the conversational payoff, because that is the only reward commenting will ever produce in real life.

For children using AAC, every step above applies but you select a "comment" vocabulary page in the device and model commenting by activating the device yourself during play ^[5]. Research consistently shows that modeling AAC (also called aided language input) increases a child's own use of the device for non-requesting functions. AAC devices have specific pages built for social commenting that are worth exploring with your SLP.

What specific commenting phrases should you model first?

Start with exclamations and evaluative words, because they carry emotion and do not require grammatical precision. These are the easiest to model and the most salient for children.

Good early comment words: "Uh oh." "Wow." "Oh no." "Whoa." "Yay." "Look." "Gone." "More." "Big." "Fast."

Good early comment frames for slightly older or more advanced children:

• "[Name] is [verb]-ing." ("Doggy is running.")
• "[Name] did it!" (celebrates someone's action)
• "[Name] fell / stopped / got it."
• "[Pronoun] is [adjective]." ("It's wet.")

The phrase structure "[person] is [action]-ing" is the one that directly teaches commenting on what others are doing. Model it in present progressive because that is what is happening right now, which is the easiest tense to anchor to an observable event.

Avoid modeling past tense comments early. "He ran" is harder to learn because the event is over. Commenting in the moment is more learnable because child and adult both see the same thing at the same time.

If your child has echolalia, you may find they repeat your comment back to you immediately. That is not commenting yet, but it is a foothold. Accept it, build on it, and expect spontaneous production to follow with more practice.

How is teaching commenting different from teaching requesting?

Requesting teaching is driven by motivation. You withhold or create access to something desirable, and you prompt the child to ask for it. The child produces language, the item appears, the behavior reinforces. It is relatively fast.

Commenting teaching has no withholding loop. You cannot withhold the observation of a dog walking past. The intrinsic motivation has to come from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is the warmth of shared experience with a person the child finds engaging.

This has a practical implication: you need to be interesting. A child who is not particularly motivated by social interaction will not comment just because you modeled commenting 50 times this week. You have to build the relationship first, make yourself a person worth sharing things with. Floor time, child-led play, and following the child's lead are prerequisites, not extras.

Another difference: requesting generalizes fast, commenting generalizes slowly. A child who learns to ask for juice often asks for crackers and milk within days. A child who learns to comment on a dog falling down may not spontaneously comment on a cup falling down for another month. Plan for slow horizontal generalization across settings, people, and objects.

For a detailed breakdown of autism spectrum speech therapy goals and how commenting fits in, that page goes deeper on pragmatic targets in ABA and naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions.

Does joint attention have to come first?

Yes, in almost every case. A child who does not yet follow a point or check back with a caregiver's face after something happens is not ready for verbal commenting. Commenting is joint attention made verbal.

Joint attention has two flavors: responding to joint attention (RJA) and initiating joint attention (IJA). RJA develops first. The child looks where you point. IJA is what commenting builds on: the child initiates the shared look because they want you to see what they see.

If your child is still in the RJA stage, spend time there. Point at things and wait for the child to follow your gaze. Once that is reliable, start adding the verbal label on top of it: "Look. A bird." Fade the point, keep the label. Now you are bridging toward commenting.

The Hanen Centre's "It Takes Two to Talk" program, designed for parents of late-talking children, structures this sequence explicitly and has a reasonable evidence base ^[6]. It is not the only option, but if you are a systematic learner who wants a structured home curriculum, it is worth knowing about.

How can you practice commenting during everyday routines?

The grocery store beats any therapy worksheet. So does bath time, playground pickup, and watching a sibling play.

Routines work because the events are predictable enough that you can set up anticipation ("I wonder what the baby is doing...") but varied enough that comments stay novel. Here are specific setups:

During play: Narrate what the other person is doing, then pause and look at your child. "Daddy is stacking the blocks aaallll the way up... and... wow." Wait. If your child says or gestures anything about the blocks, treat it as a comment and respond.

During community outings: Pick one target per outing. "Today we're going to look for things to say 'uh oh' about." When something falls, bumps, or surprises, use your cue expression and model the comment.

During book reading: Stop on any page showing a character doing something and comment on the action before asking a question. Questions prompt answering. Comments prompt commenting. Sequence them: you comment, you wait, then if nothing comes, you comment again and turn the page.

During sibling or peer play: Sibling interaction is particularly rich because children find other children more interesting than most toys. Stand back, narrate softly, and cue your target child with a gentle look.

The research on naturalistic language intervention consistently shows better generalization when practice happens across multiple environments and partners rather than in a single structured setting ^[7]. Ten minutes of embedded commenting practice every day beats a single 30-minute drill session.

How long does it take to see spontaneous commenting?

Honest answer: it varies a lot, and nobody has clean population-level data on this specific target. The closest estimates come from intervention studies on joint attention and social communication in autism, where parent-implemented programs showed improvements in initiating joint attention over 8 to 12 weeks of consistent practice ^[8].

For late talkers without autism who have some joint attention already, you might see the first spontaneous unprompted comments within 3 to 6 weeks of daily modeling. For children with autism and limited joint attention, 3 to 6 months of consistent work before spontaneous generalization is not unusual.

Progress indicators that commenting is emerging, even before the words come:

• The child looks at your face right after something interesting happens (gaze referencing)
• The child brings objects to show you without wanting anything
• The child makes a sound or exclamation directed at you when something unexpected occurs

These are pre-verbal commenting acts. Count them. They are the architecture the words get built on.

If you are a month in and seeing none of these precursors, that is when a formal speech-language evaluation is worth scheduling. Early intervention services (for children under 3) are free under IDEA Part C ^[9]. For children 3 and older, Part B services through the school district apply.

When should you bring in a speech-language pathologist?

If your child is 18 months and not pointing to share interest, or 24 months and not making any spontaneous verbal comments, bring this specifically to your pediatrician and ask for an SLP referral. Do not wait to see if they grow out of it.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, children under 3 are entitled to a free evaluation through state early intervention programs if there is a suspected delay ^[9]. The evaluation must happen within 45 days of the referral. Children 3 to 21 fall under Part B, and your school district is the entry point.

A licensed SLP will assess pragmatic language specifically, more than vocabulary or articulation. Standardized assessments like the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) or the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) include specific probes for commenting and joint attention ^[10].

Home practice absolutely helps, but it does not replace skilled assessment. An SLP can identify whether the barrier to commenting is joint attention, motor planning (as in apraxia of speech), processing, or something else entirely. The intervention is different for each of those.

If in-person access is limited, online speech therapy has grown a lot, and several platforms specifically serve late talkers and autistic children with pragmatic goals.

How does an AAC device change how you teach commenting?

AAC changes the mechanics but not the principles. The child still needs motivation to share observations, still needs joint attention as a foundation, and still needs to see commenting modeled before they can produce it independently.

The practical shift is that you model comments by touching the device yourself during play, a technique called aided language stimulation or aided language input ^[5]. If a toy car crashes, you pick up the child's device and hit the symbols for "oh no" or "car" and "fall." You do not hand the device to the child and prompt them. You just show it.

AAC systems tend to front-load requesting vocabulary because that is what parents and therapists ask for first. Comment words, exclamations, opinion words, and social phrases often live on secondary pages. Push your SLP to prioritize them from the start.

Children who have a full comment vocabulary on their AAC systems use their devices more, for far more than requesting ^[5]. The social reward of being responded to is itself motivating.

If you are building an AAC vocabulary right now, tools that let you add custom commenting phrases quickly matter. The Little Words app includes a modeling mode parents can use during play, which is worth checking out at littlewords.ai/start if you want a lower-cost entry point before investing in a full dedicated device.

What if a child is commenting too much about the wrong things?

This is less common but real: some children, often those with strong verbal scripts or echolalia, produce frequent verbal output that looks like commenting but is actually scripted or tangential. They may narrate from a favorite show while playing, or repeatedly describe the same objects regardless of what is happening.

That is different from social commenting, which requires responsiveness to the current shared situation. If your child's "comments" do not reference what is actually happening right now and do not seek your eye contact, they are likely scripted language rather than social communication.

The response is not to suppress the scripting but to work alongside it. Accept the script, add a real comment of your own about the current situation, and wait. Over time, mixing real-event narration into scripted exchanges can shift the child toward situational referencing.

This is an area where working with an SLP who understands neurodivergent communication is especially important. Scripted language is not a barrier to communication, it is often a foundation for it. The goal is expansion, not elimination.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between commenting and requesting in speech development?

Requesting means using language to get something: a toy, food, help. Commenting means using language just to share an observation, with nothing to gain. Both are essential, but requesting develops earlier because the payoff is immediate. Commenting requires a child to value social connection itself as the reward. Many late talkers and autistic children over-rely on requesting and skip commenting, which is a specific and teachable gap.

How do I get my autistic child to comment on what other people are doing?

Start by modeling comments yourself during play without expecting anything back. Use animated expressions ("Whoa!") paired with simple phrases like "Daddy fell!" or "Dog is running!" After a week of pure modeling, add a pause and wait for a reaction. Accept any response: a look, a sound, a gesture. Build joint attention first. For many autistic children, 8 to 12 weeks of consistent parent-modeled commenting practice is a realistic timeline before spontaneous commenting appears.

At what age should a child be able to comment on what others are doing?

Simple protodeclarative pointing, which is the nonverbal version of commenting, typically appears by 12 months. First verbal comments like "uh oh" or a single noun while watching an event emerge between 15 and 18 months. Two-word subject-verb comments are expected by 24 months. If a child is 24 months or older and rarely or never makes unprompted comments, that is worth raising with a pediatrician or speech-language pathologist.

Can I teach commenting without using flashcards or structured drills?

Yes, and frankly daily routines work better than drills for this skill. Commenting is a social behavior and it generalizes best when practiced in real social contexts: play, mealtimes, outings, book reading. The key technique is modeling out loud what you observe, then pausing. No cards, no prompts, no correction. Ten minutes of embedded practice during everyday activities is more effective than a single structured drill session.

What if my child only comments when I prompt them and never spontaneously?

Prompted commenting is a real step, not a failure. It means the motor plan and vocabulary exist. The goal now is fading the prompt. Try going from a full model ("Say 'uh oh!'") to a partial model ("Uh...") to an expectant look with no verbal cue. Reduce your prompt level every few days. Spontaneous commenting usually emerges when the child has had the prompted version succeed many times across many different situations and partners.

Does floor time or child-led play help children learn to comment?

Yes. Floor time and child-led play build the relationship foundation that makes commenting meaningful. A child comments to share something with a person they find engaging. If the adult is directing, correcting, or mostly asking questions, there is less reason to comment. Following the child's lead, staying at their physical level, and watching with genuine interest signals that observations are worth sharing. These are prerequisites for commenting work, not extras.

How do I teach commenting to a nonverbal child?

The target is not verbal commenting specifically but communicative commenting: any act that shares attention about an event with no goal of getting something. For nonverbal children this might be a look toward your face, a gesture, a sound, or activating a symbol on an AAC device. Model comments using the child's communication system, accept all forms of comment response, and build up from there. The AAC modeling technique called aided language input is well-supported for this purpose.

Are there specific games that naturally encourage children to comment?

Games with surprising outcomes are the best because they naturally trigger exclamations and observations. Bubble play, where bubbles pop unexpectedly. Marble runs. Block towers that fall. Wind-up toys. Peek-a-boo with older children. Any cause-and-effect toy where the outcome is slightly unpredictable gives you a natural "uh oh" or "wow" moment to model and then wait through. The surprise cues the emotional response that commenting rides on.

What does a speech therapist actually do to work on commenting in sessions?

An SLP will typically assess the child's current pragmatic profile first, measuring the ratio of requesting to commenting, joint attention initiation, and response to others' bids. Treatment often uses naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) like JASPER or PRT, which specifically target joint engagement and social communication. Parents are usually coached to carry the strategies home, because generalization outside the therapy room depends on it.

Is commenting harder for children with apraxia of speech?

It can be, though the reason is different from autism or late talking. In childhood apraxia of speech, the motor planning required to produce words is inconsistent, so a child may have the intent to comment but not be able to reliably execute the words in the moment. For these children, building commenting in easy motor contexts first (exclamations like "uh oh") and pairing them with AAC or gesture reduces the production barrier while keeping the social motivation intact. See more on this at the apraxia of speech page.

How often should we practice commenting at home?

Daily practice matters more than session length. Aim for 10 to 15 minutes of embedded commenting during regular activities, spread across the day rather than done in one block. Consistency across multiple routines and settings is what drives generalization. Occasional intensive sessions with no follow-through between them show less durable gains in social communication research than brief daily practice.

Does commenting ever develop on its own without intervention?

For many late talkers without other developmental concerns, yes. Some children who are slow to comment at 18 months catch up spontaneously by 24 to 30 months, particularly if caregivers are naturally responsive communicators. However, for children with autism, persistent joint attention deficits, or significant language delays, spontaneous commenting rarely emerges without targeted input. Watchful waiting past 24 months without referral is generally not recommended by ASHA or AAP guidance.

Can siblings help teach a child to comment?

Siblings are among the best commenting teachers, unintentionally. Children find other children more arousing and interesting than most adults, which raises the chance that a sibling's action will trigger an observational response. You can structure this deliberately by narrating sibling play ("Look what she's doing!") while keeping your target child close by, then pausing for them to respond. Peer-mediated intervention, a formal version of this, has solid research support for building social communication in autism.

Sources

1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Social Communication: Commenting classified under joint attention and pragmatic language as a social communication function
2. Trembath D et al., Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2014: Autistic children produced significantly fewer spontaneous comments and more requests compared to typically developing peers matched on vocabulary size
3. Mundy P et al., Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1986 (and replicated); summarized in Mundy & Newell, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2007: Joint attention deficits in autism are present as early as 12 to 18 months and are among the most predictive early markers
4. American Academy of Pediatrics, Developmental Milestones: AAP lists sharing objects and pointing to show interest as 12-month markers, and 50 words plus two-word phrases as 24-month markers
5. ASHA, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Practice Portal: Aided language input (modeling AAC use) increases non-requesting social communication functions in children using AAC
6. Girolametto L et al., Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 1996; Hanen Centre It Takes Two to Talk program evidence summary: Hanen It Takes Two to Talk parent-implemented program has evidence for improving joint attention and early communication in late-talking children
7. Kaiser AP & Roberts MY, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2011: Naturalistic language intervention across multiple environments and partners produces better generalization than single-setting structured practice
8. Kasari C et al., Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2010 (JASPER intervention study): Parent-implemented joint attention intervention showed improvements in initiating joint attention over 8 to 12 weeks
9. U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part C and Part B: Children under 3 entitled to free early intervention evaluation under IDEA Part C; evaluation must occur within 45 days of referral
10. Wetherby AM & Prizant BM, Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) manual; ASHA assessment resources: CSBS and ADOS-2 include specific probes for commenting and joint attention in early communication assessment
11. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Learn the Signs. Act Early. Milestones: CDC milestone checklists include joint attention and social sharing behaviors at 12, 18, and 24 months