As parents, we get to teach our kids everything and even how to talk. How do I
teach my kid to talk? Vicki, you're speech-language pathologist and you get
to work with parents on this a lot too. So, what are some tips you can give us? -So,
I'm going to kind of take you right through the developmental stages.
Obviously, speaking and communicating is something that we grow and develop
throughout different stages. -Right. More of a process. -It is a big process.
And I just wanted to leave one little caveat that when you look up online, it's
going to say my child between the ages of this and this should be able to do that.
Remember these are norms, they're guidelines. Not every child who is not
doing that by the last day is considered delayed or have a disorder. So, just be
aware these are the things to watch for. So... -Nice. I wanted to make this super
practical. So here we are. I'm just going to give you tips for the different
development. You can start helping your child learn to communicate from birth to
3 months old. You're like... "Well..." Right? Yeah. So, you're going to start right from
the very beginning. One of the things you do with a child is you talk and you say
something then you pause and then you go again. And that teaches turn-taking. It's
like I talked I watched the child the baby for any response and I go I then
respond again. And you're watching for any reaction. You're going to do mirroring.
This is the most important thing to do with the little tiny babies. Mirror. If they
round their lips, you round your lip. Follow them. It's so interesting. If you
just take a few minutes and lay down with the baby and just follow their lead.
If they wiggle, you wiggle. Do their mouth. And you're just teaching this
communication this mirroring. Do be aware that they probably are going to get too
tired and they might just turn their head away from you. That's okay. Let them
just have their little break and then they'll come back for their stimulation
and their neurology. They're not ready to be stimulated the whole time. So they
sometimes just need a break. So, Vicki, these are things that can be done way
before we ever start teaching words or getting them to say mama or dada.
-Yeah. This is just communication. Turn-taking, exchanges. What we call
drawing attention. From the very start.
-Wow. So now, we're going to talk about a little bit older infant. From about four
months old to near a year old, right? -Okay. -This is a time you're really going to
vamp up labeling things. So with a brand new born, you're still talking. You're
talking to your child back and forth. You're going to start labeling book, dog, cat,
go, run. You're going to label everything that you're talking about. -Basically
connecting up a sound with something that they can perceive or see. -Yes. Yeah,
you're going to really just start labeling things and you're going to encourage
them to communicate in any way that they do. To take a communication turn. Maybe... I
you know, what I don't like to use and these kids are really young but you can
even do maybe a "Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake Baker's... Man!" And you kind of hesitate and
bring in with it and let them kind of participate. And intake anything that
they give you they go, "Ah!" They got the vowel. You're like, "Yes, man! Bake me a cake."
So, you're going to take and respond to any communication gesture they give you. -I've
noticed little kids do this pretty naturally with songs. -Oh, yes because of
the repetition... -A good way. -And they'll they'll get the very last sound in
a phrase and they'll blurt it out. -Right. -That's kind of what you're talking about
there as well. -Books are good for that too there's a
lot of books that's like, one of our favorite was Napping House where
everyone is sleeping. You know, all of the kids knew and you let them help. So, you
start responding to any gesture of communication they give you and kind of
hesitate and encourage any of that speech. Now, our child is 1 to 2 years old.
One of the things remember that they're learning from listening to you, so you're
going to always want to model good speech. Meaning the correct pronunciation of
things. So you wouldn't want to say wing for ring. If it's ring then say ring. Even
if they might say wing. And I see this a lot of times as they learn their first
words, they might say it a different way. Go ahead and let
them do their words and you continue to show them the right way because they're
going to learn through... -That's kind of a funny example for me because sometimes
like with our little grandkids and things. They mispronounce it because
they're still learning how to articulate those sounds. And so, with the example you
used. "Oh, you like grandpa swing?" "No, Grampy. Not wing. Wing."' -Yeah. That sound
a lot different, right? -They know what the word is and they can tell it you said it
wrong. Even though they can't say it properly yet.
-Yeah, that happens all the time. -So, we have to model the correct way.
-Model the correct way. Another thing is start explaining things. Explain how
things work and why they work like, "Oh, daddy goes to work in the morning. He's
going to get in his car and turn it on." So, you start explaining what's happening
there. -Sequencing and processes that are happening. -Right. You want to start doing
all of that and of course you're always going to encourage and respond to any
communication gestures that they give you. Which actually brings me to the next
most important is you're going to start gesturing a lot at this age. You use a
lot of hands and you point to things and you mime things and you use gestures
a lot. Because that is a commitment they're maybe they're not developed
enough neurologically to communicate with a lot of words but they can start
communicating a lot with gestures. So, go ahead and do a lot of gestures for them
as well. -We'll just incorporate what they're naturally inclined to do. And
Vicki, you've mentioned this before in other videos as well, I don't think we've
quite touched on yet. rand that is running a commentary. -Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're
constantly talking about what you are doing. At this point, you're still talking
a lot about what you're doing. You're starting to comment about what they're
doing as you're playing with them. So now, we're going to get... We're getting a
little older. We're a 2 and a 3-year-old. They're starting to say a
few words. They maybe have... By the time, so a child doesn't put two words together
until they have about 50 words. So they're starting to label out a lot of
things. And we're going to continue. -So they know 50 words? -Yeah. -They don't
start stitching them together until... -They have to be using 50 words.
They probably know a lot more they understand. Receptive language develops a
lot faster. You have a bigger vocabulary synergy. But when they're using 50 words,
they'll start stitching them together. So, every stage that we're talking about,
we're going to add to it. So now, we have a 2 through 2 to a 3 year old.
We're going to start asking and we're going to start answering who, what and where
questions. Now notice, I didn't say why and when. Who, what and where. Those are
our concrete. It's really easy to see. "Oh, where is the ball? Where is it?" And you
can look in it's under the... They're very concrete. You can find the answer. "What is
that?" Or "Who comes home?" Or you know, things
like that. So... -It can be a really simple answer because there is a lot of thing
but they have to connect the language to it. -And you know, we remember
we had a gesturing. So when they point, we're going to start doing a lot of
pointing and requesting them. "Can you show me where's your elbow?" And they can
point. And so this is a great communication we're developing both the
receptive. The way we understand as well as the expressive. I'm showing and
pointing. So you're going to add a lot of pointing in as well. And so you're going
to be doing some really simple concrete questions that's a place to start. -And
this is age 2 to 3? -2 to of 3. So those toddler years. That's what we're
talking about. Those little toddler years and and we're gonna start
naming and labeling and pointing to body parts. That's a really common thing.
Because they're very aware of their self right now. They're very much in a self
stage so we want to talk about their body parts and and finding the same one
on... You know... Daddy's nose, baby's nose. -Yes. You're going to do a
lot of that. So now your child knows a lot of words. And they're probably
stitching several 2, 3. You expect between ages 3 and 4 even at
least four words frequently together. And so you're going to start adding in
directions. You're going to give them directions. You know, 'Go. Can you go tell
daddy to come to dinner? Can you take this to Grandma?" Or maybe, "Go get your
shoes and put them on the couch." You can try a two-step direction like that. So,
you're going to start adding in some directions. -So Vicki, I know that
especially as children starting to understand directions, it's
good to keep it very simple not complicated or multiple steps. But you
said by the time they're turning 3-4 years old... -Doing at least 1 step, sometimes 2 steps.
-Okay. -Yeah. And and if you get lost and they you've told them, "Look at your shoes,
brush your teeth and then come downstairs and bring your sister." That's...
Well like, "Whew!" -Meltdown. -Probably they won't get that much. So just break
it down into a couple and of those steps. This time is really great to start
introducing a lot more greetings. You know, help your child say, "Oh, hi
there's our friend. They came to the park. Say, hi Jimmy." And you're going to model how
to do it. You're going to encourage them to say. Because you want to do this
greetings because suddenly you know we said it... They're very much right here
they're starting to become aware of other people so we want to do the
greetings to get that social communication going. -It's around age 4 or
5 that we have metacognition kicking in. Where kids can actually think about
their own thinking and they start to realize there's more to this world than
just me and I have an impact on other people. So, we're incorporating that now
in the speech training. -Right. We really want to get those greetings but we also
want to do categories. This is so fun how many times have you done with little
kids just like, we have a whole pile of Legos. Let's do all the red ones over
here and the green ones over here or you might have... Let's find all the things
when you're putting away the dishes. The things that we stir with. You find the
spoons or... So there's a lot of categorizing. So you might... This is a
really great vocabulary development skill because when you hear a new word,
think about when you hear a brand new word. You have to kind of stick it in a
category with something else you've heard. -Right. -That's what we're doing with
them. So, we're teaching them how to categorize things. Even as much as
boy/girl. So, we want to you know had that one. He's a boy that's a girl. You know,
just different categories. All over the place there's categories. This can be... I
wanted to use the word gamified. Where you turn it into a game because as kids
are enjoying this, you can make it a game to
create these categories. In fact, a lot of the games that are appropriate for kids
of that age are of that nature. -Right. -Grouping things, categorizing
things. And this is the natural thing that they do at this stage of
development. -Right. And you can also add in at this stage a little bit of
descriptions. -So, oh that is.. "I just touched the light bulb. It gets hot and
it gives us light. And it's glass. So it's really... We need to be careful with it it
can break." So, you you're adding in explanations, descriptions. -Nice. -We talked
so much about we want our child to talk. Right? But at age 3 and 4 is when
you start really teaching them how to listen. Listen for sounds. Maybe go on a
listening walk. And you stop and say, "What can you hear right now? You know, like the
water or the birds or maybe some bugs." Maybe in the house you're like, "Do you hear
that buzzing?" So, you're starting to really explore sounds just listening. -I'm
chuckling over here because we're talking about 3-4 year old kids.
Guess what's the first thing that I
teach to couples who come in for counseling coaching? Listen, you
got 2 ears and one mouth. Let's use them in that proportion. -Yeah. We really
want to get that listening going. So.. -That's an important part of
communication and of speech obviously. But also that social connectedness is
going to be facilitated by listening more. -Right. Okay, so the next stage we're
going to talk about in this the last stage is the 4 to 5 year old. Okay? We're
going to add in sequencing. We're going to start using a sequencing words like
before during, next after we're going to do some story retell first. You know,
"Goldilocks went in the house. Next, she sat in the chair and last, the Bears
came home." Of course I'm going to add more. But you're going to use sequencing words
at this point. -That helps them to put all of the words that they've been learning
into a greater context and also introduces an interesting thing called
storytelling. -Mm-hmm -Which is an important part of
communication. -It is. And it and as you noticed these
are all going to get them ready for their school-age years to where there's
a lot of sequencing steps. Think about math and all the sequencing that's
involved there. You need to understand before, next, then, first. Those are all
great words so you're going to want to introduce those words to them. Another
really great thing for the 4 to 5 year old is to talk about why. Why things
happen? This introduces... It introduces cause-and-effect. So, you help
them talk about well, why... They'll have a hard time still answering the question
why but you can start talking about why. You know, you might say let's suppose
together why is the sky blue today and it was gray yesterday and then talk
about the clouds. Or you might just say, "I put on my coat because it's cold outside.
That's why..." Yeah, so you're giving them the why. And last is you
really want to encourage them to start talking about their feelings and to
describe their emotions. So, this is just their socially and emotionally now ready
to start talking about those. So you want to help them learn how to do that and
give them words for that. -That's a lot of information. You've got this. You're a
good parent. You're a conscious, positive parent and
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