Encouraging Speech in Your Toddler

Today a mom was talking to me about her concerns with her child’s speech. She said, “My daughter only has three words in her vocabulary, and she is almost two. What words should my child be saying? Should I be concerned? Do you think she needs speech?” I told her that I am not a Speech Pathologist (SLP), just a therapy mom, but I could tell her about the experience of my daughter and that maybe would help her.

My daughter started therapy with a speech pathologist after birth, not for speech, but for feeding. At a year, I was concerned about my daughter’s limited vocabulary so I had her tested to see if the SLP needed to work on speech. My daughter did well on the test. Even though she had three words in her vocabulary, the test required one. One thing she struggled with was pointing to objects, but the therapist tracked her eyes and knew she understood what the names of the objects were.

After testing, the therapist told us to work on pointing to objects and increasing her vocabulary. She recommended a program called “Baby Babble” by Talking Child. She also recommended that we start with animal sounds, and showed us an APP called “Peek-a-boo Farm”. When I asked her what words I should be working on, she said just words our family uses daily, such as:

Dad (Dada)

Mom (Mama)

Water (Wawa)

Bottle (Baba) or Milk (Mi)

Dog (Daw)

No

Bye-Bye

All Done (Don don)

Ball (Ba)

Hi or Hello

Uh-oh

That (at)

More

Up

Open

Eat

Food (ood)

Book

Car or beep or vroom

Baby

Bubbles

Pop

 

Poo Poo

Wee 

 She also gave me some awesome strategies to use when working on new vocabulary:

·         speak slower while using names of objects

·         repeat self while modeling (while stacking blocks say “on top” with each block stacked)

·         make learning fun with play (work on animal sounds while playing with a farm set)

·         sing songs

 

When my daughter turned two, I was once again worried about her vocabulary. She didn’t talk very much, and I didn’t think she had many words. Upon testing I learned, she had 22 words and was just starting putting words together, so she didn’t qualify. She was actually right where she needed to be. Since my daughter is shy, I didn’t realize how many words she had. The therapist told me to just keep encouraging her to use her words at home.

Today my daughter is talking up a storm. She just needed a little more time to open up and come out of her shell. If you are worried about your child’s speech, contact a SLP and have your child tested. They might be able to also give you strategies and ideas that are geared towards your baby.