Things that help speech development?

[itsraining2024]

What things have helped your child develop their speech? Or encourage them to speak?

No amount of reading or singing or narrating made a blind bit of for my son. If they are a bit older and your worried then get them a hearing test. Even mild glue ear can hugely delay speech.

Honestly youtube, Shows like miss Rachel helped a lot. I know a lot of parents are sensitive about screentime but it genuinely did help.

I found this book Babytalk: Amazon.co.uk: Ward, Sally: 9780099297208: Books helpful with my DD when she was speech delayed.

Not YouTube.

Talking to both of them about what I was doing, just narrating all of the general day to day processes - “Let’s put on your shoes. This shoe goes in your left foot… And this shoe goes in your right foot”.

If they said a word incorrectly, I wouldn’t repeat this back to them (people often do because words said incorrectly are cute). I would just repeat the word correctly.

Singing songs like nursery rhymes was also really helpful for getting mine talking.

Talking to them, singing to them, reading to them and engaging with them. I chatted to ours from when they were born, and they had bedtime stories from the get go. They were early talkers and now DGS (21mths). is too, and DDIL & DS2 have done the same. Don’t stick your babies in front of a woman on YouTube and let her sing to them, do it yourselves.

Just to add, SpeechSisters and FeedEatSpeak are good for advice on Instagram.

Yes to narrating. Allow time for the child to answer. Use the child's body language, facial expressions and direction of eye pointings to help you to decode what the child might be communicating and narrate that, too.

Reading together, learn to sing songs and rhymes.

If you have concerns please get their hearing checked.

Makaton and simple use of language. Talk all the time, sing nursery rhymes because they are designed to help language acquisition. Offer lots of simple choices eirh one works options like juice or milk, bath or shower, robot or car etc. Lots of modelling sounds like brum, eyore, woof etc and do unnautrally long pauses at the end of each sentence to give your child plenty of time to process what you have said and respond.

Peppa pig. Seriously. Me talking to him, his dad, whole family and childminder made v little difference. He is autistic though. We used to play orchard games before bed too.

Talking about what your child is really interested in. Asking open-ended questions about stories/pictures. Try and show as well as tell (use sign, gesture, real objects). Allowing your child time to think process information. Make the most out of play. Lot's of song and rhyme. Making up stories together.
The following websites have loads of information and ideas.

https://speechandlanguage.link/parent-portal/language-activities/
(using every day activities to encourage your child's speech and language development)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/activities
https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/help-for-families/