5 valuable tips that help in speech development for babies
It is very difficult for you to judge the
rate of development of language and speech of your child because every child is
different and so their rate of language and speech development. It’s your duty
to observe whether your child’s rate of speech is constantly improving or not.
It’s natural that by the age of three you will be able to understand what your
child says. At the same time, your child will be able to understand what other
people say.
It may be possible that your child can
speak but his words won’t flow smoothly. He may face difficulty in expressing
his thoughts in full sentences because of the broken syllables or words. This
may result in a lack of clarity in speech.
There are time-proven 5 valuable tips for speech development for babies that can
be of great help to your child. These tips help in improving your child’s
communication skills and his quality of life. He can communicate easily and
freely with family, friends, and others.
Tip 1: Talk about What You Are Doing
When you are with your toddler, you should
make an effort to talk about what you are doing, seeing, touching, eating, or
listening to. A speech pathologist called this self-talk. Keep it short, simple,
and fun.
For example: “I am washing the dishes…”
“…. now I am drying them…” or “I see a doggie…” “…he is a big doggie.” While
talking don’t expect your little one to repeat you. Narrating what you are
doing simply gives your child exposure to the language. It helps your child
understand that talking is not only fun but also functional.
Tip 2: Talk about What Your Child Is Doing
When you are watching your child play,
talk about what he or she is doing. The speech therapist called this “parallel
talk.” Use simple words that are easy to understand for your toddler. Don’t
forget to keep the sentences short and simple. For example, “You are building a
big tower! Wow!” or “You threw the ball! Nice throw, dear!”. Read about the Pregnancy Tips to Have a Healthy Baby
Tip 3: Avoid Asking Too Many Questions
If you ask too many questions, your child
may feel like you are testing him, and it can be overwhelming. You can rather
take the help of simpler comments. For example, instead of picking up a toy car
and asking, “What is it?”, you can say, “This car runs fast!” Pause and wait
for a few seconds to see if he responds. If he doesn’t say anything, you should
add another comment like, “I love your car.”
After a few comments, you can throw in an
open-ended question like: “Where is your car going?” Don’t be discouraged if he
doesn’t respond since some open-ended questions can be a challenging
word-retrieval task.
Tip 4: Give Options
If you find that your child is not
responding well to open-ended questions, then offering an option may make his
response a little easier. When we give options to the toddlers, we are telling
them that they have some control and their input matters. Providing choices and
options also encourages decision-making ability and promotes language
development.
“Dear do you want to play with the car or the boat?” Have the car and the boat in your hands and hold each one up while you present each choice. If you offer a choice to your child, it will be easier for him to imitate and repeat the same thing. It will also help him to point or gesture the same thing if he can’t say anything yet.
“Dear do you want to play with the car or the boat?” Have the car and the boat in your hands and hold each one up while you present each choice. If you offer a choice to your child, it will be easier for him to imitate and repeat the same thing. It will also help him to point or gesture the same thing if he can’t say anything yet.
Tip 5: Expand Your Toddlers Language
When your toddler starts combining two
words while speaking, he may try to say something like: “I play” or “baby
sleep”. Take this opportunity to add in
the missing words to make it a grammatically correct sentence. So, you can say,
“I am playing” or “baby is sleeping.”
Final Thought
Give your child time to improve his
language and speaking skills. Your patience and positive outlook play a
significant role in helping your child to learn and improve his skills. Your
child benefits the most when you empathize with him.
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