Encouraging Language in Toddlers: Part Six

Encouraging Language: Be Patient

My next tip is simple but sweet.  When you are trying to encourage language, whether it be their first word or whether you are trying to encourage them to put words together: Use wait time.  This means that after you ask your child a question and you want them to respond, give them LOTS of time to answer.  Wait there quietly for a good minute.  You will be able to tell if your child is thinking or formulating a reply.  Sometimes we think that lulls in a conversation are awkward or even incorrect - but they're not!  Especially with younger children.  Some children have slower processing speed and they just need MORE TIME.  Some children might have difficulty coordinating the movement required for speech (such as apraxia).  Some children take time to process what the actual question was.  For these reasons and many more - remember it's okay to wait.

Show them that it's okay for them to think about their answer and that they don't have to answer immediately.  Take off the pressure.  Smile.  Get down on their level.  And wait.  I'm not making any promises, but give it a try!  You might be surprised!

Encouraging Language in Toddlers: Part 5

Encouraging Language: Focus on Power Words

When you're trying to encourage your young one to start saying more words, try focusing on 2-3 specific words for a while.  Good words to use would be 'power words'.  I've also heard them  referred to as 'stereotypical phrases.'  These are words that can stand alone yet still give a clear meaning.  They are used often throughout the day and they are very functional.  There is often a clear action or gesture associated with them as well.  Some examples include: Bye, Go, More, Uh-Oh, or Hi.  Pick one or two of these and then look for ways to fit them in naturally throughout the day. 

One of my favorites is "Go!"  You can make it very exciting by adding suspense before doing anything fun by counting to three, then saying, "Go!"  For example, when playing with a car, you say "One, Two, Three.......GO!"  Then push it across the floor.  You can do it while making lunch.  You need to pour in the milk?  "One, Two, Three,.....GO!"  After you do this a few times, pause for a second before you say "Go!" and then see how your child reacts.  He might lean forward, or bounce, or reach his hand forward.  He might even say "O" which is terrific!  Keep bombarding your child with these words in natural contexts, and they'll start to pick up on it in no time!

Encouraging Language in Toddlers: Part Four

Encouraging Language: Give your Child an Opportunity to Use Words

As parents, sometimes we have to be mind-readers.  Our newborn is crying, and we have to figure out why. Do they want changed?  Are they hungry?  Are they bored?  Eventually we start to learn that different cries mean different things.  We know just what they need, and we want to satisfy that need as soon as possible.  It's part of being a good mom, right?  Right.  Well, there comes a point where you need to stop being such a great mind-reader...or at least your child needs to think that your ability to read minds has suddenly disappeared.  Even though you secretly still know what they need.  What I'm trying to say is, 

Give your child an opportunity to use words.  

Here's an example: Your 14 month old is whining, and you know for a fact that he is hungry and wants a bottle of milk.  Before you just give him the bottle, take a few minutes and give him the chance to actually request it.  Take him into the kitchen and say "What do you want?"  Maybe he will point to the cupboard where you keep the bottles, or maybe to the fridge where the milk is.  Pointing is a good first step!  Encourage a word too.  "You want some milk?  A bottle?"  Pick a key word to use consistently and model it each time your child wants some milk in a bottle.  Or whatever the situation may be.  After you have given him the chance to respond and you have encouraged some communication on his part, then go ahead and give him the bottle.  Don't take so long that he gets really mad or really hungry.  The main point here is to give your child a chance to talk.  They might surprise you!

How to Encourage Language in Toddlers: Part Three

Encouraging Language: Talk to Your Child

Now that you've determined that your child has good hearing, you can rest assured that the language input that you work so hard to give them will be heard.  Now we can focus on the language input itself.  So here is my next tip.  Are you ready?

 Talk to your child.  

Talk about everything you see.  Talk about everything you are doing.  Talk about everything you are eating.  It's never too soon to start introducing your baby to language.  I think most parents are pretty natural at this.  But maybe there are times in which you find yourself  thinking about other things such as errands, what to cook for dinner, what to buy at the store, etc, and so your mind is preoccupied.  Well that's going to happen to an extent, and that's fine.  When you're at the store, be one of those moms who looks like she is talking to herself.  "I'm looking for the ketchup!  Oh here it is! I found the ketchup.  Do you want to hold the ketchup?  Now we need some milk.  Let's go this way.  Over here!  Down this way.  Stop!  There it is!  There's the milk.  Do you see it?"  And so on.  I'm not saying you need to be constantly jabbering away and driving your child (and everyone around you) to craziness.  Certainly the child will need some time to think, process, and absorb.  Try to find a good balance.  Make sure it works for you and you are comfortable with it.  The main point here is that your child learns so much from YOU.  So make sure you are giving them plenty to learn from.  

How to Encourage Language in Toddlers: Part Two

Encouraging Language: Rule out a Hearing Loss

If you are worried about your child's speech and/or language development, here's the first thing you should do: Rule out a hearing loss.  This does NOT mean standing behind your child and clapping your hands or jiggling some keys around to see if they notice.  A hearing loss can be very mild or very severe.  Each and every type of hearing loss can go undetected for one reason or another.

(This is my little guy after he passed his newborn hearing screening - yay!)

Most every newborn nowadays gets their hearing checked at birth - which is a great thing - but sometimes a hearing loss develops as the child grows.  In addition, newborn hearing screenings are conducted at slightly louder levels, which means that they could pass the test but still have a very mild hearing loss.  What all that means is, even if your child passed a newborn screening, they could still have a hearing loss.  I'm not trying to scare you here.  There's a very good chance that your child doesn't have a hearing loss.  But you'll never know unless you get them tested.  Find a local pediatric audiologist who can give your child a quick test.  I always say that nothing is worse than not knowing.  Do you agree?  The key here is to recognize that even a mild hearing loss can cause significant delays in speech and language development.  Once you have a hearing loss ruled out then you can rest easy knowing that your child will have no problems hearing all the language that you model for them.

How to Encourage Language in Toddlers: Part One

Encouraging Language in Toddlers: Introduction and Disclaimer

Lately I've had a few parents of one and two year olds ask me: "My child isn't really talking yet..should I be worried?" followed by "What should I do?"  In moments like this, my role as an SLP requires me to not only give a correct answer, but also make it somewhat short, without using a whole bunch of acronyms or strange vocabulary, give good resources and advice, and also assure Mom that she is doing a good job.  So I told myself, "It's time for Speaking of Kids to do a series on this subject!"

Let me start off with a little disclaimer: This series is not meant to replace a thorough speech/language evaluation.  If you have concerns about your child, you really ought to find a local friendly Speech-Language Pathologist who can evaluate your child's own specific strengths and weaknesses to determine a) what the problem is, b) what to do about it, and c) if there are any other underlying factors to take into account (such as apraxia, autism, syndromes, etc.)  The tips I will share are the tips another SLP would probably give you, so why not start now??

The first step is to decide if your child is behind or not.  Sometimes that can be very obvious, other times it's not.  But in this series I will be mostly focusing on Expressive Vocabulary, so here are the facts:

• At twelve months old, your child should be just starting to use words, maybe using one or two fairly consistently. (Usually "Momma", "Bottle", "Up"....)  (More on that here)
•  By 18 months, they should be using at least 10 words, and possibly up to 50. (More on that here)
• At 24 months, a child should be using between 200 and 300 words.  They should be starting to put two words together soon.  
• By 36 months, they should use about 1000 words.  Wow! (More on that here)

Now you are armed with knowledge!  If you think your child is behind, don't panic.  Find a speech therapist to talk to you specifically about your child.  Nothing is worse than wondering.  Just take action and see where it takes you.  In the meantime, I hope you're excited because the next post will be about the FIRST step to take if you think your child might be a little behind in language development.  See you next time!