Helping a toddler talk more

One tactic to use to get a toddler to talk more, is to place things he likes just out of his reach, until he asks for them by name. 

Maybe he was saying the word before then stopped for some reason. He will understand "milk" but will maybe just say " Ah Ah" and point to the bottle or the cup where the milk is. 
So you can show him the milk and say "milk" very clearly.  Then show him some juice too and say "juice".

But keep the milk and juice both out of his reach. Offer him the juice and say "Juice? You want juice?" then say " Milk? You want milk?" and keep them out of reach. 

Tell him "Say M...i..l..k."  until he tries to say "milk". If she says something  that is a better sound for milk than " Ah Ah ", maybe he'll say "ma" Mik" or "Ik" reward him by giving the milk. 

He may say 'oos" for juice and that is terrific, any move towards a better version of "juice" should be rewarded by being given the desired thing.

Your toddler likely can't say the words clearly yet, so you need to reward the effort of making sounds that are closer to the correct sounds. So " oo" is just fine at this stage.

Complete the pattern

Repeating an action and a word to create a pattern is very powerful way to help toddlers to talk more.  Humans have a strong inbuilt need to complete patterns and sequences. Use this to encourage your toddler to talk.

You say or sing a word pattern many times until you see your toddler is enjoying it and watching you closely and then start to leave off the last word and slowly begin to say it and your toddler will very likely try to say it with you.  

A simple example is waving and saying "Bye Bye".  Wave your hand and say 'Bye Bye'  " Bye Bye", stop and then repeat about 5 times, on the sixth time, just wave, don't say anything and see if your toddler will try to say " Bye Bye" to fill the silence.  Action rhymes and games that repeat the same sounds and actions are perfect for this.


Words fill the silence

You must smile while you are doing any of the following tips to feel the pleasure and not make it into a chore or a test.

Think of other things you can make your toddler 'ask' for.  For example, in the case of the milk and juice,  put only a little milk ( a few spoonfuls) or juice in the cup and when your child shows he wants more, say " More? " and pour a little more into the cup.

Repeat this around 5 times and then on the fifth time, don't say anything. Leave a moment of silence to see if your toddler will try to say " More" to complete the pattern. How long you wait, depends on your patience and your toddler's, but it's ok to just say it yourself after 4-5 seconds and try again later ( lots of times).

Put an apple on the table, let your toddler see you cut it into slices and say " Apple" , "Apple". Hold out a slice and say "Apple". Eat a bit of the apple yourself, saying "Apple" before you bite into it, but don't offer any to the toddler.  Eat another bit and say "Apple" . Hold a piece of apple out to your toddler and say nothing.  If he doesn't try to say " Apple" , you  say "Ah....." "Ah......pple". Then give him the piece of apple.

Repeat these activities several times a day and there is a good chance your toddler will start to talk more.

For more ideas of activities, rhymes and games to help a toddler up to age three years talk more Click Here

Baby Development - Some First Words Tips

When parents or caregivers ask about baby development, and baby's first words in particular, it would be terrific to give a really simple standard answer, but that isn't possible when all babies and all parents are different.

So when people ask when a baby will say his first words, I'm tempted to say - well it depends how many words he's heard spoken to him. It's not enough to just have heard words spoken. 

The words need to have been related to the baby's needs and experiences.  It also depends what exactly we mean by words. If a baby looks at a cup and says " up", is that a word? We know he means cup, and that his mouth just isn't mature enough to say the "c" , Or early baby babbling from around 6 months is full of many "words" but we have no idea what they mean.

This Youtube video shows some baby babbling. Sounds a lot like dadadada!

So when we say "first words" it seems we mean a combination of sounds that we recognize and understand that are related to something we know. 

So here are a few tips to help baby get to the point of  babies saying " meaningful words"

1. Turn off your mobile phone
   'hearing' you talking to your friends on your mobile phone are only a tiny bit useful to a baby learning to talk.  He needs you to be focused on him and the words you are using need to be focused on an activity he or  you are doing. You need to be talking in clear short simple words and repeating the words and the actions. Talking on your mobile phone doesn't help here.
2. Turn off the TV
   often TV's are just left on in a room when no-one is watching it and the sound becomes a background for what other things are happening. As adults we have developed the great skill of being able to focus on what we want to hear and blocking out other sources of sound, so it fades into the background. Young children haven't developed the same skill and the sound from a TV can interfere with hearing all the separate sounds in the words you are speaking. So all that is heard is an even more meaningless jumble.
3. Play simple games
   Playing games is the heart of learning to talk and I use 'heart" deliberately. Joy, humour and laughter speed up learning. When a baby smiles and laughs we know his attention is focused. So the kind of games to play in the first few months that make babies smile and laugh is repeating the same action over and over along with repeated sounds and words. At least 10 minutes of every day should be spent doing action play.
4. Be aware
   When your baby is awake, try to put yourself in his place; imagine what its like to be him,  and ask yourself every two minutes, what would I be experiencing and learning?  Try doing that for a period of 30 minutes. 

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