How to encourage communication with your toddler?
You worry that your precious little bumble bee will not talk anytime soon? Don't! All kids have their own pace to learn or reach a certain milestone. There are many activities encouraging speech and language development that you can incorporate into your daily routine.
Here are some tips on how to encourage your baby or toddler to communicate more:
1. Do not use baby language!
Talk to your child and allow him enough time to respond. It can be a sound, a coo, a syllabus or a word. Children are intelligent and they can understand you even if you address them using normal language. In fact, some babies develop a more structured speech if they were talked to as if they were adults.
2. Focus on non-verbal communication.
Teach him to use signs and gestures to describe what he sees, wants or needs. You can create your own sign language. You will be surprise to see how much more you will understand him and how easier it will be for him to let you know anything. Who says your the baby has to use only words to express himself?
3. Develop a 'feelings' vocabulary.
Toddlers accumulate frustration when they are not able to talk, communicate, convey their wishes. Provide the words for each situation or situation: "happy", "sad", "upset" along with a facial expression. Sometimes their frustration can lead to episodes of crying, tantrums or even anger. Giving your child an alternative will ease his burden of not being able to communicate with you.
4. Read! Read! Read!
The sooner you introduce him to books, the faster he will pick up words and understand their meaning. He might not be able to pronounce them, but he will know them. Plus he will develop an early appetite for books which will pay off in time.
5. Take your time!
Name an object or a character from the books that you use together and ask him to point it to you. Don't rush going through the book, reading the story fast just because you had a long day. Take your time on each page and discuss about the details: colours, shapes, facial expressions of the character, etc. It is a fun activity that has the ability to ease the communication process.
6. Teach by actually doing an action.
For example, if you want to teach him what cooked meal means, let him see you cooking. Present him the ingredients and point out the actions: wash, peel, clean, chop, mix, cook, bake, roast, etc. It will enable him to connect words with actions.
7. Use short sentences.
Keep in mind that a toddler's attention span is very short. While talking, you may even fool around with the pronunciation of certain words, emphasizing them.
8. Avoid using negative sentences.
By reducing the frequency of the word "No", you won't risk inhibiting his speech.
9. Schedule play dates.
Giving your child a chance to interact with peers can boost its communication skills. Playing with other children offers him a different
10. Give him feedback.
Whenever he tries to say something and the words don't come out properly, do not correct him. Allow him to talk and provide content to his message. If he would say "big elephant", add "That was a big grey elephant ."
11. Satisfy his curiosity.
If your child is drawn to something, nurture that curiosity. Your child would be interested in learning anything that had caught his interest. Encourage pretend play whenever he seems to be into something.
Unless stated otherwise, all photos used in this posts are taken and owned by myself. If you wish to use any of my images, please contact me!
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave your feedback in the comments, I would love to hear your thoughts!
We are currently using many of these to encourage our little one to talk and increase his skill, we have been using sign to increase his communication skills, he can verbalse about 7 but sign over 18, so we can understand more of what he wants. Its so exciting watching them learn.
They are growing so fast and learning so much! Enjoy this period cause it is precious!
@lymepoet thanks and we will, he changes too fasts not to enjoy it.
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 25 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 5 SBD worth and should receive 97 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePigThank you!
FOR TSE: Very nice post -- and all this is so important. My brother's oldest child was put in daycare while very young so his mother could keep on working -- and by the time he was a year and a half old his language skills were so poor I was concerned he had a hearing problem -- until I realized that while stuck in daycare most of the time, nobody was talking to him -- or teaching him to talk. No wonder the poor kid had trouble.
It's a shame to hear that happened. Some daycares are worse than others. Selecting a good one can be a tough task.
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue 253 (9/10/18)
Thank you!
Agree of everything you mention. Communication and engagement are vital to develop their language skills, physical, mental and emotional development.
Thank you for your support!
Very informative for parents ! Thank you ! Upvoted at 100% !