This is a topic near & dear to my heart! Speech-language pathologists (SLP) have the opportunity to work with people of all ages, from babies to adults. The world of speech & language is quite large - SLPs get experience diagnosing & treating all kinds of communication and swallowing needs, from fluency (i.e., stuttering), voice, speech sounds, social communication, cognition, feeding, and language development. My interest has always been working with the pediatric population and have found the way babies & kids develop language fascinating! Here are some helpful tips and toys to support your child’s language development!

• Enjoy playing on the floor and being eye level with your child!

• Expand on what your child says! For example, if your child says “Car”, you can respond “Yes, that’s the red car”, “The car goes vroom vroom”, or “You have a blue car”.

  • Think about adding descriptor words like size, shape, or color

• Reading is incredible for language! Have your child sit across from you when reading books. Find books with have large pictures and few words to target expanding vocabulary.

• Bust out your singing voice! Sing nursery rhymes or even make up songs about what you are playing with

• Label items multiple times! It’s okay to sound like a broken record & then prompt your child to repeat.

• Give your child wait time after you’ve prompted them to say a word or respond to you! Waiting (in silence) allows your child time to process what you’ve said and access their language.

• Think about what words you are trying to focus on while playing

  • Examples:

    • People - “Mama”, “Dada”, child’s name, siblings, grandparents

    • Basic Concepts - in, on, up, down, under, over, on, off, big, little

    • Colors

    • Greetings - “hi”, “byebye”

    • Requests - more, open, please, again, all done

    • Verbs (action words) - go, stop, eating, drinking, jumping, walking

    • Animals + animal sounds/transportation + sounds

Toys to Build Language

Often we have great toys around the house to help build language! Use your child’s interests to elicit language and keep your child engaged! I included dinosaurs because Sheenas son loves them :)

• Animals

  • Farm sets

    • Hide-n-Go-Moo

    • Barn & Animals

• Play food set

• Cars & Trucks

• Puzzles

  • 6-pack wooden puzzles

  • Animals

  • Transportation

• Play people

• Fisher Price bathroom playset

• Tablet doodle board

• Dinosaurs

**Remember: if you have any concerns about your child’s development, don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Talk to your pediatrician, friends, family, or reach out here! You know your children the best & are their best advocate! **

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