Simple Language Stimulation Techniques to Help Your Child Talk

I work with delayed children ages birth to three years old providing play therapy to them in their homes, and educating their parents on how to work with them throughout their day to help their children reach their optimal level of development. I'd say a good 80 to 85 percent of the children we service are language delayed. A good estimate would be approximately 90 to 95 percent of these children have no structural abnormality or other underlying reason for their delay. They just simply aren't talking yet, or aren't talking as much as they should be for their age. Language is just absolutely amazing to me. And the beauty of working with a language delayed child is the fact that you can stimulate language anywhere, doing anything! Here are some ideas to stimulate your child's language.

Repetition is key! The more you repeat a word, the more your child will hear it and thus, the more likely they will be to imitate it. Repeat simple words throughout your day. Before you hand them the ball that they want, bring it to your face to grasp their attention and also so they can look at your mouth and see the way you are forming your word. Just repeat "ball" a few times. "Oh, you want the ball! Here's the ball!" Then you can hand it to your child. As you do, say "ball" one more time. You've just said the word "ball" three times in about ten seconds time. If you are shopping, point things out in the aisles. If you are playing with blocks, say "up, up, up" as you place a block on top of another. Then you can pause, allowing your child a turn to imitate. Then repeat. Say "up, up, up" as you bring another block on top. If you are rolling a ball to one another, you can simply say "ready, set, go, go go," as you roll the ball. When you do this for a second or third time, say "ready, set," and then pause allowing your child a chance to say "go." If they do not, then simply say "go" yourself as you roll the ball across the floor to your child. Another example would be when they are motioning for you to pick them up, just simply say "up, up, up" as you do so.

Just simply talking to your child throughout the day is a wonderful thing to do. You can tell them what you are doing "I'm making breakfast. We're having eggs!" You can also tell them what they are doing. "You are doing a great job eating your eggs. Are they yummy eggs?" This is going to allow for your child to be exposed to hundreds of words each and every day. They will begin to learn these words and what they mean. If a child imitates a word, it is a wonderful thing, but in order for them to spontaneously use words, to just come on out and say a word all on their own, they have to understand what word goes with what object. For example, if a child does not understand that the word "ball" means that round object they love to bounce around, then they are not going to say "ball" to let you know they want to play with it. The more you talk to your child throughout the day, the more you repeat words, the more they will understand.

Choices are also a great thing to give to your child. A perfect example of a time to give choices would be snack time. You can bring out two choices of foods that you wouldn't mind your child having. Say, for example, it's goldfish or peaches. Show both to your child and name them. Ask them if they want fish, as you show them the fish, or if they want peaches, as you show them peaches. My guess would be that your child will either point to the food that they would like, or they will reach for the food in order to get it. At this time, you can do away with the item that they do not want and offer the one they do. Say they reach for the goldfish. You can then put the peaches down, show them the goldfish, and say "oh, you want fish! Fish!" Then you can hand them a couple. But only a couple. This way, you'll be sure your child will want more, and you can begin the process all over again of offering, having your child choose, and then labeling the food. Remember, repetition is key! Our goal, of course, is for your child to eventually name the item that they want.

Working on just simple sounds is another wonderful thing to do. Words are sounds strung together, so your child has to have that practice of making sounds by themselves. If they love for you to sing, you can sing favorite songs by using just a sound. The simpler sounds to form would be sounds such as b,p,m,d, so you can start with them. If it's "Twinkle Star" that you want to sing, you can sing the song correctly the first time around, and then sing it using only a b sound afterward. So instead of it being "twinkle twinkle little star," it'll be "ba ba ba ba ba ba ba." Also, children this age often love it when we act silly. I play a tickle game with my 12-month-old son. I'll have him lay on the floor and I tickle him, saying "tickle, tickle, tickle" the entire time. Then I stop. He looks right at me, wanting more. I say "do you want more tickles? Ta ta ta ta ta! Tickles." I say the t sound in a funny sort of way, as I move my head side to side. He thinks it's hilarious and he's staring at me this entire time because he knows that more tickles are coming. Therefor, I know that I have his full attention and that he's hearing all of what I'm saying to him. The best thing is when he attempts to imitate me! And when he does, I tickle him right away, which makes him want to imitate me even more, simply because he understands that he's going to get those much wanted tickles.

If your child is already using words to communicate with you, that's wonderful! You can use the above techniques to increase his/her vocabulary. If you want to work on getting those two and three-word sentences to come, what you'll do is what we call echo-expansion. Basically it's just tagging on a word to one they have just used. Say, for example, your child has just said "up" to get you to pick them up. You can then say "up, Mommy!" before you pick them up. It's best to tag on a word that you know they already have. Their chances of imitating a two-word sentence when both words they already use, are much higher than if they were to attempt a word they have never said before. If your child says both the words "fish" and "more" then a great thing to do at snack time when they say "more" would be to say "more fish" a couple times before handing them another goldfish cracker.

Language is beautiful! When your child starts to talk, it opens up an entire new form of communicating with you. Isn't it wonderful to know that you can stimulate their language development with techniques such as these that are really quite simple to do?