During their research on communicative intent in children, Wetherby & Prizant (1989) generated a list of communicative temptations to increase the ease with which they could gather samples of child speech. Communication temptations are situations that are purposely constructed to “tempt” the child into communicating with the adult. These situations are constructed so that the child is required to do perform some type of communicative initiation – verbal, nonverbal, or gesture – in order to obtain what they desire, communicate that something is a non-preferred choice, communicate that it is undesirable to them, or communicate that something is not what they expected. Wetherby & Prizant (1989) used a number of temptations during their research from a previous study by Wetherby & Prutting (1984), and included the temptation ideas in their research article. The following list has been adapted directly from Wetherby & Prizant (1989).
1. Eat a food the child desires in front of the child without offering any to them.
2. Wind up a toy, let it move, and then give it to the child without winding it up again.
3. Blow bubbles until the child notices and becomes engaged, then close the lid tightly and give it to the child.
4. Begin a familiar game with the child (e.g., peek-a-boo) until the child is engaged then stop the game abruptly and wait.
5. Blow up a balloon, deflate it, then hold the deflated balloon up to your mouth and wait for the child to initiate recurrence.
6. Offer the child an item, toy, or snack just out of their reach.
7. Have the child watch as you place an item, toy, or snack in a clear childproof container (or other container they can not open), close the container and give it to the child.
8. Touch the child’s hands, arms, feet or legs to something that is unusual and potentially undesirable – such as something cold, wet, slimy, or sticky (e.g., Jell-O, glue, pudding, shaving cream, etc.).
9. While rolling a ball back and forth in succession, stop, hold the ball, and wait.
10. Spill, drop, break, or tear something in front of the child that typically shouldn’t be spilled, dropped, broken, or torn and wait.
11. Fill a bag, box, or container with something that makes noise, shake it in front of the child, and wait.
12. Give the child everything they need for an activity or routine – eating, making a craft, or getting dressed – but do not provide them with the crucial piece they need. Hold it just out of their reach, or give the crucial piece to another person who walks across the room while holding the piece and showing it to the child and wait.
The element that binds the communication temptations together is providing wait time for the child to respond. These situations can be created within any situation or environment, so long as there is at least one component that is desirable, undesirable, or out of routine for the child, and the child is provided with wait time within which to respond to the event created by the parent.