Teaching Toddlers to talk

Here are some tips to facilitate your little one’s speech and language development. I always coach parents to use a lot of intonation in their voices and excitement when speaking to their baby or toddler. Don’t use baby talk but you can simplify what you say. I love reading rhyming books to little ones such as Brown Bear Brown Bear or Moo Baa La La La! Using music and children’s nursery rhymes such as Super Simple Songs along with hand gestures for songs is also a great way to facilitate language. Get down on their level on the floor, use their interests, let them lead the play and play along side or join in! During daily activities, talk about what you are doing. Label everything for them! Point to an object, toy or picture and label it. Encourage vocal play too and remember word approximations are a good thing! It is OK if they can’t say the word correctly yet. Repeat what they say back to them! Learning baby signs for eat, more, milk, drink, finished, and all done and modeling them during meals or snack along with saying the words is another great way to help your baby or toddler communicate. Most of all make it fun!