How to help progress toddler speech
I’ve been trying to find some similar subject blogs to this one to follow (I follow lots of handmade/crafty blogs which are much easier to find, but finding non-American parenting blogs seems to be a lot harder), but discovered this Kate Takes 5 via Love in the Nest. I was looking at her listography posts as I love lists and think I’ll sign up to do those blogging tasks in due course, but found this while reading other posts.
Talking isn’t a stage N’s got to yet, apart from mumumum, dadadada, nanana, bababa and heyo (think the last one’s his version of hello as he copies us), but it’s interesting and hopefully I’ll remember it when we get to the learning words phase.
Kate’s top tips for improving toddler speech:
1. Make them choose
Always offer a choice, even when the answer is obvious. For example Do you want the apple or the biscuit? Do you want water or blackcurrent? Do you want lentils or Super Noodles. (Obviously mine always choose the apple, water, lentils – not). Make your child say which one they want rather than allowing them to point.
2. From one word to two
Gradually increase their word count, eg. Do you want the green apple or the brown biscuit, etc.
3. Don’t mind their manners
Don’t focus too much on ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ as you want to develop your childs knowledge of words and how to say them, not just always focusing on a couple of mannerly phrases.
4. Nouns to Verbs
As parents we tend to focus on the nouns. ‘I’m picking up the ball…Can you say ball?’ or ‘I’m washing my hands…Can you say hands?’. That’s all well and good but as your child develops we need to focus on the action words too ie ‘I’m picking up the ball’ or ‘I’m washing my hands’. The more they hear these words the easier it is for them to repeat them, so constantly point to and repeat action words in books or even just as you go about your daily business.
5. Repeat, repeat, repeat
Repeating words constantly for your child to hear is very important, as is getting them to repeat the words themselves. It doesn’t have to be perfect – as long as they’re trying that’s good enough.
It all seems really sensible, and along with this, singing (N loves his Rhythm Time music classes as well as the singing parts during swimming) and reading, hopefully he’ll be chatting away easily with us able to understand him. If he takes after me, there’ll be no problem!
Have you done anything in particular to help your baby or toddler with their speech?