“He has a great vocabulary!” I hear it all the time about my 3-year-old from his teachers, family members, friends, and sometimes complete strangers.
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People ask me what I do or what the “trick” is to teaching young children great language skills. Honestly, I used to tell them I really didn’t know. Then I mention I’m a teacher and they reply, “oh well of course you know what to do.”
Which I mean, yes I do know about child development. I have a lot of strategies for teaching children in a classroom setting. Over years of teaching I have taught numerous children how to read, write, spell, and learn to use their communication skills. But I’m not a speech and language pathologist, pediatrician, or psychologist.
If you feel like your child isn’t showing communication in a way that is typical of their same age peers, you should bring up your concerns to their teacher or pediatrician.
What steps did I take to learn about language skills?
As a teacher I have a background in helping students learn how to read and use their words to express themselves.
However as a new mom, I needed to know more about babies language development. I read Brain Rules for Baby By: John Medina and learned so much about language development in babies.
In “Brain Rules for Baby” it outlines that language development is best learned when we are speaking to our baby. This means that when it’s said that babies (toddlers and children) need to hear words throughout the day, they need to hear them spoken directly to them.
Then, I found Carly from Wee talkers on Instagram. Carly is a speech and language pathologist based in Canada. She teaches parents of babies and young toddlers how to enhance their child’s language skills. If you follow Carly, you’ll quickly begin to learn how important it is to use songs, poems, and words with babies. She is also clear throughout her Instagram, that speech and language begin well before a baby starts saying their first words.
What I quickly learned was that I needed to be talking to my baby everyday. I needed to tell him all the of the objects in the room, describe what we were doing, and sing silly songs with him! I can tell you that while offering babies (and toddlers) language everyday is free- it is also exhausting!
By implementing so many of the ideas taught from these resources, I can proudly say that as of today, my 3 year knows well over 1,000 words. He correctly uses words like opposite, correct, embarrassed, and dusk. My 1 year old is saying 3 word phrases.
What are my best tips for teaching language to toddlers?
I have always exposed him to language since before he was born. My husband and I have always told him about his day or the people we are visiting. We make sure to describe the noises we hear and the foods we eat.
The ways that you can continue to expose your children to language are endless including:
– Tell them about your day, using words time order words like first, next, then, and finally.
– Telling them what is on their plate at any meal, including words to describe it, “cold cereal and yellow banana”.
– Letting them help in the kitchen. There are so many words children learn in the kitchen including mixing, blending, pouring, and more.
– Getting them involved in household chores: you can read more about that here.
– Using description words with them like loud, stinky, pretty, cute, slimy, fuzzy, soft, sweet, sour, spicy, and more!
– During daily walks I tell him what about what I see in the neighborhood like flags, cars (parked cars, moving cars), etc.
– Use words like weeee or woahhhh when they go down the big slides at the park.
– Turn on background music in our kitchen and always have sang to him during diaper changes or in his rocking chair.
– Playing games with him and doing puzzles exposes children to a variety of words including a lot of position words (front, on, under, behind, beside, around, etc.).
– Letting him do a sensory table or water table will expose him to more language like action words (pouring, stirring, mixing), using feeling descriptive words, and more.
– Using bath time, similar to the water and sensory table. Bath time allows for a lot of language development, this is where my son learned all of his body parts. My husband starting teaching them to him while he was washing him.
– Narrate your day: Telling them what you are doing exactly while you are doing it “I’m changing your diaper. Oh I’m unbuttoning you’re shirt, it has 3 buttons, 1, 2, 3.”
Other things I do to support language development is by playing with my kids. I teach them how to play with their Little People house, kitchen set, and trucks. We do this by helping them create stories and imaginative play.
The next thing I did was read to him- A LOT! I exposed him to the same book over and over! Make sure you have books that are appropriate for their age and development. The key is finding books that will be engaging to them. You can read about books for 1 year olds here and books for 3 year olds here.
We are not big on having a TV on in our home. In fact most of the time we only use the TV during the last 30 minutes of our day. This allows our children to really focus on language with us. It allows them to hear us use vocabulary with them. In turn they are better able to use it back with us.
I make sure that I use real and correct words with my kids. For example when they were babies I didn’t use words like Baba to describe a bottle. I used the correct term bottle. If they use a word incorrectly I give them the correct way to use it. Not in a shaming way but I do want them to know how to use it in the future.
I also always make sure to use complete sentences and when they give an answer and encourage them to also use correct sentences.
It’s not about having the brightest, smartest, or best baby (toddler or child). It’s about helping your child to be the best that they can be and offering them all the resources you can.
Hopefully with these tips your baby or a toddler will start talking when they’re ready. But one thing is for sure the more you talk to them the more they will understand what you say and be able to use it appropriately when they’re ready.
Please leave me a comment down below with something that you learned or let me know how you teach your toddler to talk. Don’t forget to share this with a parent who is looking for more talking tips for her baby or toddler.
Love, Ashley E
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2 Responses
Such a great reminder of how to have conversations with toddlers as I interact with them! Certainly want to assist them with their vocabularies and it’s great to hear what they are thinking! Thanks for the reminder regarding the power of talking with children and listening to them, to hear their growing vocabularies.
Lori, I’m glad you found it helpful!