TEACHING TODDLERS TO TALK

The life of parents becomes easy once their toddlers start talking. They can tell you their needs comfortably and you will comprehend them more easily at this stage. You can readily fulfill their needs and they will become more pleasant.

Your child listens to your sound even before birth and starts to learn back-and-forth conversations and words since birth. Your child goes through various stages of development during their toddler hood. These include walking and talking etc but all children have different learning abilities.

Teaching toddlers to talk is not an easy task and there is no method to make them talk overnight. Rather, it’s a slow process and requires patience and persistence. Your child will experience different speech milestones at different stages of their early life.

By the first birthday, most children learn to say two words “mama” and “dada”. Then words are added to their dictionary with the growth.

This article will discuss some easy tips and tricks to encourage your baby to speak and other related hot questions.

How to teach your toddler to talk?

 

All the parents desperately want their kids to develop speech skills. You must be wondering how to teach your toddler to talk.

Here are some tips to boost the learning process and to help you pitch in.

1. Talk to your kiddo. Dense the language environment around your baby, it will assist her to learn quickly. Tell your toddler everything you do.
2. If you want your kiddo to learn proper speech, use correct grammar. The baby will learn the exact word you speak, avoid baby talk.
3. Try to ask different questions which will push your toddler to utter more words. Plus point: it will help her to learn how to converse and how to question.
4. Teach your baby 2 words at a time to help her brain to hold it all.
5. Be a little tough and make her ask whatever she wants. You can read her tone and body language but don’t fulfill her demand until she gets the words out.
6. Use emphasis wisely on the specific words and draw her attention to their meaning. She’ll comprehend the meaning and may try to use them next time.
7. Respond to whatever your toddler tries to say and repeat her words with the correct pronunciation.
8. Read her stories as it will improve her language skills. She will learn the story by heart and will repeat the words of it.

What age should a toddler be talking?

Every child has his timeline and it’s hard to determine the right milestone. Most parents are concerned about what age should a toddler be talking.

Of course, different children achieve certain milestones at certain ages. But it’s really hard for parents to accept the fact that their children are behind in speaking skills than other children in the family.

In most cases, it’s the natural variation among children to develop a certain skill. Don’t limit talking to only uttering words rather it’s a complex task.

Considering the certain talking age for toddlers, most kids start to babble around 6 months of age. Most of the kids utter their first words between 10-15 months and many start speaking at the age of 12 months.

After the age of 18 months, they start to combine the words into simple sentences. Some kids are late talkers which means they do comprehend the language but have fewer words to speak.

The studies show that about 70-80% of kids suffering from expressive difficulties gain speaking skills by the age of 4. If your little one is above 4 but still unable to communicate, he might be enduring DLD (Developmental Language Disorder).

What causes a child to delay talking?

Delay talking is common among autistic children but it can also occur in normal kids. Even if you are not an expert you can differentiate either case.

You need to know what causes a child to delay talking to help you figure out the case for your child. I’m going to enlist some causes of delay talking, continue reading to know.

• Deprivation of speaking environment where kids are often neglected and have no one to talk to them can delay talking.
• Developmental speech disorder can be the reason for your little one’s delay in talking. It’s mainly because the brain not working efficiently.
• You should test your child’s hearing ability. He might be suffering from hearing loss.
• Kids with autism often face communication problems.
• Traumatic brain injury and other neurological problems can be the reason for your kid’s delay in talking.

What are the signs of speech delay?

Language delay is common among preschool-aged children and almost 5-10% of them are affected. You might want to know what are the signs of speech delay and here is the answer:

1. Your kid is of 15 months but not babbling
2. If your kid is 2 years old but not talking
3. Difficulty following directions
4. Speaking meaningless sentences by skipping some words
5. Poor pronunciation
6. If your 3 years old kid is unable to speak short sentences
7. Unable to combine words to make a sentence

Can watching TV cause speech delay?

Kids are not willing to leave the screen and you must be stressing over “can watching TV cause speech delay”. Several studies have been conducted in this regard to know the answer to your question.

Screen causes many developmental defects in children and one of them is expressive language delay.

The studies show that 49% risk of speech delay is higher in kids spending most of their time in front of the screen. Another study shows that toddlers who watch more TV, say fewer words.

Keep your baby under 18 months completely away from the screen as recommended by the Pediatricians.

Conclusion

Toddlers learn speech skills gradually but they can communicate to tell their needs. Teaching toddlers to talk and watching them learn new skills is fun.

You can use the tips mentioned in this article to boost the learning process. Just surround your toddler with the speaking environment and keep them away from the screen.