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Week 11 Speech Development Tip:  Involve the whole family and even friends when you are working to improve your toddler's speech.  If your child has other siblings, you can do the activities with them as well.  Share your child's speech activities and speech tips with others who are in contact with your child on a regular basis.

Recently I got an email from a parent who's child was not talki ...

Week 10 Speech Development Tip:  Name things in your child’s environment.  Name objects (“puppy,” “bike”), use action words, (“go,” “kick”), and use descriptive words (“big,” ”funny”).

The purpose of this speech development tip is to immerse your child in language.  Naming objects is a good way to introduce and expand your child’s vocabulary.  Your child may not be able to imitate what you a ...

Week 9 Speech Development Tip: Imitate your childʼs actions, vocalizations, or words.

Make a game out of it.  Imitate your childʼs actions and encourage your child to imitate your actions or vocalizations. Describe the actions while you do it. For example, “Amber claps, now Mommy claps!”

This may be a fun game for you and your toddler, but what is the goal? 

Here are a few reasons why this ...

Speech Development Tip 8:  Sing songs with your child.  Make up simple actions for your child to imitate.  This is a fun, non-threatening way to encourage speech. If your child is not using words yet, you can also sing sounds to a simple tune.

Why does singing songs help your toddler talk?*
Singing songs is like learning through play.  It takes the pressure off of structured learning.  

The ...

Speech Development Tip 7:  Use simple commands.  Too many steps or words can overwhelm your child.  For example, “Jesse, you need to go to the closet and get your shoes on before we can go to the park,” is too wordy.  “Jesse, shoes on,” is less overwhelming.

Do you remember the famous line in the Charlie Brown episodes?  Anytime an adult talks to the characters in the show, they hear, “whuah ...

Speech Development Tip 6: Donʼt anticipate your
childʼs needs or wants too quickly. Allow your child the
chance to communicate needs and wants. For example,
place a favorite toy in sight, but slightly out of reach. Wait for
your child to gesture or speak before getting the toy.

As mothers we take pride in predicting our child's needs.  We can decipher our child's cries...knowing what is the ...

Speech Development Tip 4: Use self talk when your child is close enough to hear.

It makes sense to say that we have to talk to our children, if we want them to learn to talk.  Learning is not always a formal, structured occurance.  We just need to get into the habit of not only talking to our children, but talking when our kids are around.  Let me explain myself.  There are two similar types ...

Speech Development Tip 3: Introduce simple sign language to your child.

You may ask yourself, “why should I use sign language to help my toddler talk?” My answer is simple.  You can’t force your child to talk, but you can teach your child to sign.  You can show him a need for communication.  From birth, babies make their needs known.  Children will continue to make their needs or wants known, ...