How can I encourage my 2.5 year old to communicate?

[Adriana87]

My son turns 3 in April and is behind in his language skills. He is pretty decent and labelling things; knows his alphabet, can count to 20, knows his animals, songs and can same a number of other words. He can also follow certain instructions; turn of the light, put on your shoes, put this in the bin etc. Knows who mummy and daddy is, really good at navigating the iPad and other devices and will request Alexa (Amazon Echo) to play certain songs. However, he doesn't do this clearly and can't actually say it so she activates.

The concern is that he does not use his words to communicate. If he wants something, he'll drag you or point and get quite upset. Sometimes, if he can see it, he may point and say "banana" for example but he's not consistent regarding when he does this and what for.



He has always had dodgy hearing and is scheduled to have grommets inserted within the next 6 months and also will be starting speech therapy hopefully within the next 3-4 months. My question is, what can we be doing at home to help him? Also, if anyone knows where else we can find help (YouTube, websites, private therapy etc.) it will be much appreciated.



Thank you so much

[BackforGood]

Have a look at Talking Point

there is a lot of useful information on it and you can get in touch and ask a Speech and Language Therapist for advice

[LeGrandBleu]

The first thing you should do is take the iPad and all the devices and out them away. It is proven they delay language www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/ipad-equals-dont-talk.aspx

Unplug the tv and say it is broken, send Alexa in holiday, leave your phones in a drawer and get back to basic, chatting and reading in the house.