Speech therapy experts recommend parents use these speech therapy techniques at home to help with language development. Build these activities into your everyday routines to help master communication skills.
1. Language Modelling
Children need to hear language to develop language. The number one way you can help your child develop speech is to be a good language model for your child.
So how do you model language? During play and daily routines always talk to your child about what you are doing. For example: “you are putting your arms into your shirt” or “Mummy is cooking your breakfast”. This increases the opportunities your child has to hear language.
Modelling is also important when your child makes an attempt at a word. Remember most young children cannot pronounce many words correctly. It's ok if they always say “ba” for ‘ball’. If they are doing this consistently you know this is their word for ‘ball’. However, you need to be sure you always pronounce it correctly with the “l” sound on the end, so they hear it correctly. Instead of using normal speech many parents revert to baby talk by imitating their child’s speech, such as calling a bottle “baba” or a blanket “blanky.” This does not help them hear the correct sounds or learn the correct pronunciation of words.
2. Expansion
When your child says a single word, always expand on that word so that they hear them in correct sentences. For example, if your child says: “baby”, you can say: “the baby is sleeping.” Or if they say: “more” you can say the full sentence: “I want more juice”.
Remember to give your child the language you want them to use. When you ask a question: “do you want more juice?” they can simply nod or shake their head in response. Instead model: “I want more juice” as in the future you want your child to be able to make a request: “I want more juice”.
3. Imitation
Young children love to imitate. Take advantage of this to help them develop their language skills. Start by imitating something that your child already does, especially something fun or silly such as like making faces or unusual sounds. Then move onto encouraging imitation of new gestures by singing and adding actions to songs like ‘Wheels on the Bus’ or imitating familiar sounds like environmental noises or animal sounds such as: whee, zoom, beep-beep, ding-dong, uh-oh, moo, woof, meow.
4. Choices
Always give choices during meal and play time to encourage your child to use gestures and vocalisation to communicate their wants and needs. For example if your child points toward the kitchen when they are thirsty, give them a choice by holding up their cup then showing them the milk and juice. Ask them “do you want milk or juice?”.
5. Model with someone else
Families play a crucial role in helping children develop communication skills. Modelling with other people is a great way to include siblings or other family members. By using a family member to firstly model the language eg ‘I want more juice” this gives the child an opportunity to hear the language used in context and to respond.
6. Parallel Talk
When you are playing with your child or they are doing daily activities such as eating or bathing, talk to them about what they are doing. For example, “You are building a big tower. You stacked 5 blocks! Uh oh, one fell down.” Or “You love eating watermelon”. “Those bananas are yummy. Chew, chew, chew. Bananas are slippery”.
7. Waiting/withholding
This is best to do when you know your child already has a specific word but is not using it. For example, you know they have a word for a familiar object such as 'banana'. Start by taking a banana and saying: “I have a banana, I love banana”. You want them to make a verbal request using their word for 'banana'. Always give them time to respond before giving it to them (you can count to 10 in your head). Keep looking at them so they understand that you are waiting for them to speak. They may need a little extra time to respond. If they do not vocalise by the time you have counted to 10, repeat the language: “I have a banana, I love banana” and then give them the banana.
8. Experience books
You can use pictures of common objects and fun activities so your child can point to what they want. For example make an experience book of daily routines by using digital pictures placed into a small photo album. You can take the pictures yourself, find them on the internet or cut out pictures from a magazine. Cover the pictures with adhesive plastic and place magnetic tape on the back so your child can make choices by handing a picture to you.
9. Questioning
Ask open ended questions instead of always using questions that only require a yes or no answer. Open ended questions are used to start a conversation with your child. For example: “where is Daddy?” or: “what do you want for lunch?” or: “who is coming home soon?”. If your child doesn’t answer you can answer for them: “Daddy is at work” or: “Grandma is coming home soon!”.
10. Novelty
Bring something new or unexpected into their play or daily routine to elicit conversation. For example, while playing with farm animals make the cow say “woof woof” and see if your child notices and comments on it. When it is time to brush teeth hand them a comb and see what they say. If they don't comment, you can point it out and say: “We don’t use a comb to brush our teeth, we use a toothbrush”.
11. Forgetting
Forget things on purpose and see if your child remembers or comments. For example, if they want milk, place their cup on the table and the milk within reach, but don’t pour the milk. Wait to see if they respond. Or sing “Twinkle, twinkle little ___” and forget to say “star”. See if your child makes an attempt to fill in the forgotten word.
12. Self-Talk
This is something parents should do all the time to help their child's comprehension of language. Talk about everything and anything you are doing “Mummy is doing the laundry. I am folding your red shirt.” or “I am chopping carrots. We are going to have a salad with carrots and lettuce and cucumbers”.
13.Paraphrase
Use simple sentences and simple commands with toddlers instead of lengthy explanations or directions. Instead of saying “You need to put on your coat because it’s cold outside and we’re going to Grandma’s house” simply give simple directions like: “Put on your coat”. Using simpler language when asking children to complete a task or follow a direction works best.
14. Place things out of their reach
Instead of always leaving your child’s sippy cup on the coffee table, put it within their sight, but out of their reach. When they want it they will need to gesture or verbalise that they want it. You can do the same with favourite toys.
Spokle speech therapy app provides hundreds of fun activities based on these techniques. Families can do these activities at home to help their children met their language milestones.
