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| Home / News / Speech News / | ||
| Encouraging Speech and Language Development | ||
| It's never too early to begin encouraging speech development and
interest in communication. Even newborns seem to have interest in
and natural desire to communicate. Take advantage of this and begin
stimulating your baby early on by talking, singing, humming, cooing,
babbling and reading to him from the beginning of his life.
With an infant between four and five months, experiment or play with sounds. Try making one of your baby's favorite sounds when she is being quiet, to see if you can get her to imitate you. Vary the sound production by stretching it out, saying it softly, loudly, or quickly. Between six and nine months your baby will begin to string syllables together like ba-ba-ba and wa-wa-wa. Introduce new syllables for her to imitate. If she can say ba-ba-ba, then introduce bee-bee-bee to her and encourage her to make your sounds. Play this game with many different sound combinations, raising and lowering your pitch or loudness level. By encouraging sound play, vocal imitation, and give-and-take in sound production, you will be laying a good foundation for your baby to produce her first words. With your toddler between the ages of twelve months and two and a half years growth in speech and language can be enhanced by trying some of the following suggestions: Read to him frequently, using a slow rate of speech and an expressive voice. Have him point to pictures in the book as you name them. Vary this at times by saying, "Show me the one for drinking," rather than simply "Show me the cup." Model good speaking patterns by using the techniques of self-talk and parallel talk. Self talk is talking aloud to yourself about whatever activity you are engaged in when your toddler is around. Keep your sentences short and simple. For example, as you make lunch, say something like "Mommie is making lunch. I need bread. Here's bread. I need peanut butter. Spread it on." ...and so forth. Use Parallel Talk when you and your toddler are playing together and you talk about what both of you are doing, again using short, simple sentences. Use the technique of expansion to encourage your toddler to combine two to three words together. Expansion involves taking the one word your child has just used and modeling a two- or three-word combination. If your child says "doggie," say back to him, "doggie run" or "doggie sit." With your preschooler: Use a related technique called extension to broaden your preschooler's language. To continue with the example of your child saying, "There's a doggie," you could also extend his thought by saying something like, "Yes, there is a dog and I'll bet that dog is thirsty, because he is panting so hard. Do you think he's thirsty?" Read with your child, and follow his lead. Take new words or concepts introduced in the book and use them in real life situations with your child. Most children love speech in rhythm, like rhymes and songs. Activities involving singing or memorizing nursery rhymes or other short poems provide great speech and language practice, and help your child see herself as an effective communicator. To help children memorize songs or rhymes, use the "fill in the blank" technique. For example, after you have recited a nursery rhyme to her many times, start leaving off the final word and have her fill it in for you. Gradually omit more and more words, allowing her to fill in the missing lines. With this technique, in no time at all, she'll be reciting the whole rhyme by herself. Take advantage of everyday activities to expose your toddler or preschooler to new words. While shopping, name items and let her hold them before you put them in your grocery cart. Name body parts and clothing during bath and dressing times. And remember, your child needs to hear words repeated many times before she will be able to say them on her own. One final suggestion: always comment or ask questions about whatever your child is attending to and then be sure to wait patiently while he comes up with a response. The Hearing Speech & Deafness Center offers free screenings. We also offer comprehensive evaluations and therapy. If you live in the Seattle are and have further questions or would like to schedule an appointment, feel free to contact us.
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