Ideas to Help Develop Your Toddler's Speech

My son is now 20 months old, and has always been behind in his speech. He's very intelligent and understands what is going on around him, and he tries to communicate with my husband and me, but mostly through non-verbal cues and grunts. This was still frustrating to him because we did not understand him much of the time, and it would often result in him crying. So these are some things that worked for us, and maybe they can help your family as well.

#1: Make sure your child's hearing is normal.

I immediately suspected that my son's hearing might be bad due to all of his ear infections, so I had him evaluated by an ear/nose/throat doctor and by a hearing specialist and a speech therapist. They all agreed that he needed tubes in his ears, and that may improve his hearing, which we hoped would automatically improve his speech. Clay's hearing was a little bit lower than it should be, and since he was almost constantly on antibiotics for ear infections for about three months, we chose to have tubes put in his ears. It definitely improved his hearing afterwards, but his speech did not seem to be catching up. So we began exploring other ways to improve his speech.

#2: Read to your child every day.

One of the best ways for your child to learn words is hearing you use them. I take time out of each and every day to read to my son. I read to him even as an infant, anything I was reading. Then as he got older and started becoming more interested in what I was reading - and my newspaper was not nearly as exciting to him anymore - I started reading children's books to him. My son loves the ones with big bright pictures best. As we read, we name everything in the book. Point out things in the story that might be familiar to your child, like a special toy or a favorite animal. I ask him questions about what we are reading, and I have him point things out to me. I might ask him "where's the dog", and this is a good way of determining his level of understanding not only what I am saying to him, but also if he can identify the dog.

#3: Name everything around you.

Like I mentioned above, one of the best ways for your child to learn how to speak correctly is hearing you talk and hearing how you put sentences together and hearing what you call things. So name everything around you and your child as much as you can. If you are at the grocery store, show your child what food you are buying. That is also a great place to teach about colors and how to count, and eventually about nutrition. If you are at home, name your surroundings. Talk about the couch or the dog or the computer or the shoes or shirt you are putting your child in. Just name everything. At first, I felt silly talking to my baby about these basic things and it almost felt as though I was talking to myself. But my son loved it! He hangs onto every word I say sometimes, and eventually did start imitating and pointing things out to me.

#4: Make a picture book of familiar objects from your child's world.

Since my son loves books so much, I decided to make a book for him of pictures of familiar objects that he should be able to name. I first bought a little photo album, one that he can just flip through and there would be a different photo on each page. Then I took digital pictures of his favorite things, such as some of his toys, some of his food, his drinks, various actions like reading or running or laughing. I printed those pictures and put them into his album, and I labeled each one, so that as he gets old enough to recognize letters on a page, it may even be helpful then.

It is also a good idea, especially if you have a lot of family that you do not see very often, to make another album of family members (or other important people to you). As you see extended family at holidays or other special events, take pictures of them individually, and then give them each their own page in a new album. Then you can flip through this book with your child and teach the names and faces of your loved ones that you may not see on a regular basis. This certainly helped my son get over his shyness at Christmas when we were surrounded by people that he really does not see that often, but they were recognizable to him from those pictures.

#5: Make a wall of pictures in the kitchen of your child's favorite foods and drinks.

This was an idea I had because my son wanted to tell me what he wanted to eat or drink, but he did not have the vocabulary to express such things to me. He was very unique, and would click his tongue (my husband and I called it "clucking") when he was hungry or thirsty, but then would get very frustrated with us for not understanding exactly what he wanted.

So I took pictures of normal food in his world - goldfish crackers, oatmeal, milk, water, juice. You get the idea. Then I bought plastic sheets with magnets on the back (you can find these just about anywhere that sells picture frames), and filled them with those pictures, and stuck them on the refrigerator. Then when my son started clucking, we went over to the fridge and he could then show me exactly what he wanted. Slowly, he is learning to say those actual words, but in the meantime, we really cut down on his frustration with us for not understanding what his clucking meant.

#6: Relax! It might be normal!

I really worried about my son when he was so far behind in speech, and asked several doctors about it. They all assured me that it was completely normal, especially in boys, to be behind a little bit in things like speech. I had one doctor say that if I was comparing him to a girl his own age, she could probably talk circles around him, but advised me not to be comparing him to other children. All kids are different, and some hit development milestones at different ages than other children. My son was trying to communicate with us, which was a very good sign that there was not some major thing wrong with him; he just lacked the verbal skills still to actually speak. Over time, it is starting to get better. So if you are like me, and worry about every little thing regarding your child, try to relax, and understand that his speech will catch up. Try to enjoy the silence now because there will come a day very soon that your child will be talking your ear off!

#7: If all else fails, know who to call for help.

If you just cannot stop worrying about your child, then seek help. Call your child's pediatrician. They can run tests to see if your child is suffering from hearing loss or anything, and see if there is something actually wrong, even though in most cases, a speech delay is completely normal. You can also seek out the help of a speech therapist to help you teach your child language skills. Many states have government programs to help very children (usually under 3 years old) with all sorts of development delays, including speech, and this may be a much cheaper alternative than using a therapist at a hospital or private practice.

Parenting is such a complete joy and a blessing, but it is also one of the greatest challenges we face sometimes. But there are things we can do to help our children where they may be behind, and hopefully get them caught up to where they should be.