Many parents eagerly anticipate their toddler’s first words. Some may become concerned if their child is not speaking as early as expected. Be attentive, as communication is more than words. Children may communicate by pointing, reaching, crying, smiling, looking at what they want, making sounds, and so on... The following strategies are beneficial for children who seem delayed in their first words and for those who appear to be right on schedule.

Strategies to enhance understanding

1. Talk face to face – Get down to your child’s level. This allows you to better read your child’s expressions. He will feel important and will be more likely to pay attention to you.

2. Stay focused on here and now – Talking about items in the immediate environment or events that have just happened is easier for toddlers. This way, they have cues in the environment to help them understand what is being said.

3. Use shorter sentences – Short and simple sentences are easier for toddlers to understand. For example, “nice doggy” could be used instead of “that is such a nice doggy”.

4. Exaggerated intonation – This highlights important words and helps focus the child’s attention.

5. Use the same word for the same thing every time – This helps toddlers learn what specific words mean. For example, refer to the cat as “kitty” until the child is using that word then start using the word “cat”(or vice versa). Repetition is important for learning, so feel free to repeat things again and again.

6. Use specific words – Avoid words like “this”, “that”, or “it”. These are vague and could mean anything, so they are not useful for building a vocabulary. Also, use a variety of words including labels, actions, greetings, and descriptors.

Strategies to encourage speech

1. Pause and wait for a response – It can be hard to give a child enough time to respond. Try counting to five slowly in your head after asking a question. This allows your child time to think about what you said and put together a response.

2. Expand on what they say – This allows for development of grammar and vocabulary. For example, when your toddler says “doggy”, you could say “It’s a big doggy” (with exaggerated intonation on the word “big” to focus his attention on the new word).

3. Imitate – By imitating your child’s words, you are acknowledging his attempt to communicate and letting him know you heard. This will likely increase confidence and willingness to try to communicate.

4. Ask different of types of questions – Questions that require a yes or no response are useful for obtaining information, but do not allow toddlers to use their words. Choice questions are another option, but make sure the choices are visible and are words they know. This way the toddler can reply with words or a gesture. “Do you want apple juice or orange juice?” is an example of a choice question. Also, try not to pepper your toddler with questions. Mix comments with questions. “Mmm…I like juice.” You might be surprised by the amount of speech a comment can elicit.

5. Talk about what they find interesting – Let your child have a chance to direct the conversation. We all know what it is like to try to talk to someone who dominates the conversation and talks about something we are not interested in.

6. Create communicative temptations – This involves creating situations that require your toddler to communicate in order to accomplish something. It needs to be something you know your child will want. For example, you could put cheerios in a difficult-to-open, but see-through container and let him try to open it. Wait for the child to ask for help either with words or with a gesture depending on the level of your child, then open it for him. Another example would be to play with a toy, such as bubbles, that requires adult assistance. Blow some bubbles, close the jar, and set the bubbles down in plain view. Wait for communication from your child. He might say “bubbles”, “more” or reach for the jar. Then blow more bubbles.

Think back to a time when you were learning something new. Remember how difficult it was, and how you needed to think through each step before attempting it. A toddler is learning language in just the same way. Enjoy the time spent helping your child learn to communicate. If a parent is very concerned about their child’s language development, they should seek the advice of a speech-language pathologist through their community health services or their family physician.