Tips for developing your child’s talking

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● Follow your child’s lead. Let them choose what to play with and how to play with it.

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● See it and say it. Name things for your child. Describe what you are doing and what your child is doing eg if they are driving a toy car describe what they are doing ‘the car is driving’ or ‘the red car is driving under the table’

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● Keep sentences short, use sentences that are slightly longer than your child’s eg if your child says ‘I like pizza’ you could say ‘I like eating pizza too’ or ‘I like cheesy pizza’

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● Give your child time to answer, they will need longer to plan what they want to say than an adult does. Silences are helpful.

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● Repetition is good -use the same words in lots of different situations to help them to learn new words. Don’t ask ‘What’s that?’ - tell them the word instead

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● Look at books together, sing songs. This is fun but also allows your child to hear the same
language again and again and learn from the repetition

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● Model the right language- if your child makes a mistake eg ‘Boy climb ladder’, say ‘yes, the boy is climbing the ladder’. don’t tell them they have said it wrong

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● Model the right speech sounds - if your child pronounces a word incorrectly, repeat back what it should be eg ‘bork’ instead of ‘fork’ you would say ‘yes, it’s a fork’. don’t tell them they have said it wrong

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● Don’t anticipate everything your child wants, wait quietly for them to ask. Give them small amounts eg of juice or forget to give them all the pieces they need for
their game or put something they need up high so they have to ask

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● Above all have fun with your child and make them know that conversation is enjoyable