Share your tips for encouraging toddlers to talk to win one of TEN sets of Small Talk books

[SorchaMumsnet]

Small Talk is a parent’s guide to boosting speech and language skills from birth to four years. Published by pre-school specialist Campbell Books, Small Talk Bedtime and Small Talk At the Park are the follow-ups to this bestselling book. All three books are written by Nicola Lathey, an award-winning speech therapist and Tracey Blake, an experienced journalist.

Every page in Bedtime and At the Park is specially designed to encourage a baby to use a sound, a word or a sign. The illustrations are hearty and bold, and the text is catchy and repetitive so that the baby becomes absorbed in the rhythm of the story and begins to join in however they can. The parent models the words, sounds and signs which they want the baby to copy. This encourages the baby to communicate more, giving them the best possible start in life.

Share your tips for encouraging toddlers to talk for a chance to win one of TEN sets of the two new books, Small Talk Bedtime and Small Talk At the Park.

See some tips from Nicola Lathey

This discussion is sponsored by Macmillan and will end on 5 August

We used Makaton signs to support early speech. I think it really helps as it gives a tool for communication success early on, which encouraged DD. It helped her when she started nursery at 13 months too.

My child was (and still is at 4) and exceptional speaker with a massive vocabulary. Not sure exactly what we did right but the only thing I can think of is that we never used 'baby words'. I just talked to her in my normal voice with normal wording. So people weren't 'babas' and a dog wasn't a 'doggy' a horse 'horsey' etc.

I also read to her from day one. An uncle of mine bought a book of poetry for her and I just sat and read to her every night.

My son has speech delay and I have found games have really helped him start talking. If he is interested in something he is more likely to concentrate and communicate. Also give your child a chance to talk. Some parents spend so looking talking at their children their child has no chance to talk.

I talked to DD lots from birth like a running commentary e.g. mummy is cooking dinner, mummy needs a knife to chop the onion etc. Also lots of books, talking about the pictures as well as reading the story and lots of songs.
She looks out for things in the supermarket e.g. look mummy bananas there, and helps me to count fruit and veg into the bag too.

DS is a big talker. I'm not a natural narrator so I had to try other things.

I talk to people a lot in front of him. Not just family and friends but the ladies in the post office, shop staff etc. DS sees this as normal and tries it himself.

Tied to this, I taught him greetings and please / thank you really early and made sure he used them. It got people talking to him in shops etc as he was so 'polite.' This took the pressure off me a little bit.

Lots of talking on radio, tv, movies etc. After two all the things he watched just sucked up vocab. Especially old school musicals.

No word was too long. When he realised that word like 'magnifying' and 'rhododendron' got him attention, he wanted to learn more and more

Lots of bedtime reading.

Rear facing pushchair and don't bother with that baby signing rubbish. And go out and about lots and socialise.

No tips as my 4th dd (22 months) does not talk expect for mum and duck, I haven't done anything different with her but she just doesn't talk, her 3 older sisters (9,11,13) all talked as expected or even better than expected for there age.... Guess they probably talk for her, she only has to point and they go running

But will def be taking a look at these books

There are two things I use to encourage speech.
I try to give my son two options and encourage him to vocalise what he actually wants
2nd I always give him plenty of time to answer. I try and wait 15 seconds b4 saying anything else to give him chance to vocalise a response

Follow their lead, so provide a commentary of what they are interested in/doing.
Use short phrases.
Leave pauses so they can join in.

My DD (2nd child) was speech delayed. We tried everything but she barely spoke at all until she was almost 3. She sucks two fingers for comfort so we always ensured that she took her fingers out whenever she spoke. I always talked to her all the time even though she didn't reply. This includes asking questions.

Now we're around a year on and she's talking masses. She does struggle with pronunciation so we do a lot of modelling and repeating words back to her. This is really helping and she's gone from 'yabbit' to rabbit in the past month.

We read lots of books together. He likes to point at pictures and watch my face when I say the word, then later on he will point and say, "duck" or whatever it is. He's 18mo and his speech is coming thick and fast, it's so amazing to watch.
These books look brilliant.

Leave pauses and ask questions to allow the toddler to answer. Affirm what they are trying to say as they go. And with my nearly 3year old I ask her to tell me what she wants rather than mumbling on about ice cream (or whatever she is trying to obtain).

I'm not sure I have this issue as my daughters don't stop talking. My 2 yr old would repeat almost everything her older sister said. I think it might be because my husband and I are proper chatter boxes!

Talk to them about what you are doing, right from when they are babies - like a running commentary. Don't forget to pause to give them a chance to join in e.g. after asking a question. If you're concerned, speak to your hv sooner rather than later.

I chattered constantly to my baby about anything & everything & now at 14 months, he is very expressive. I never used a dummy/teat/soother, not even once,and I've always felt that this is the real reason why today he talks & expresses himself with words & loves books more than toys!

Asking questions that need more than a yes or no answer and really listening and valuing their response helps.

I give a constant running commentary of everything I do... 'Mummy's washing her hands now!' (I just have to remember not to do it at work )
We also do loads of reading and go to the library every week to keep things fresh and fun.

We make up our own songs and repeat them for our lovely Small Human, who is 4 months.
We read books and make up our own stories.
We have nonsense 'conversations' taking it in turns to encourage LO to babble and 'talk' and then 'listen' to us.

I think not forcing it is key. Just sing nursery rhymes, comment on things you see/do and read lots of books.

Expression and making reading a fun thing to do from birth is all we do! Great to get into habits of reading lots, having books toddlers can choose to get out whenever they want- changing these regularly but letting them read their favourite ones as often as they want. 2 year old ds makes up actions to go alongside his stories and love him joining in when we read!

Oh also we have a hide and seek book which is just full of pictures and ds loves finding things, saying them for me to find but especially if he has something similar eg. Toy train in picture and he has a toy train he goes and finds it! Been brilliant at improving his vocabulary and understanding

I talked to mines lot but I'm not sure if constant talking is good or not - I always thought it might just become background noise. I liked quiet times too. I was also a bit less keen on very animated talking and tried to talk to them more 'normally' and less kindergarten teacher' iyswim.

I think I realised with my DC that it was easy to underestimate them. They go through periods where there vocabulary seems to increase very rapidly so you have make sure you keep adjusting how you speak to them. My kids knew their colours really young but I don't think it was because they were clever but because I thought it was worth trying to teach them.

My DC all loved rhymes.

My DD is 2.4. We just have lots of fun all day everyday. We chat about what we are doing - and make it as playful and interactive as possible. Lots of simple questions for my DD to answer. If she gets things wrong I don't say 'No it's not red it's blue', I just smile and say something like 'its blue' and give her the chance to try again if she wants too.

Lots of eye contact and active listening when she's chatting. I want her to feel confident to try even if she's feeling unsure or doesn't know. I want her to know it doesn't matter if we get it wrong it's about giving it a go. Just like lots of poster here - we read - books, posters, magazines, my work emails(!), anything really. We talk about pictures and art - spotting stuff.

Over breakfast we read first word type books - and now moving on to Thomas the Tank style counting and talking about the pictures. Breakfast time is good for this as she is hungry and will really study the books over cereal. Whereas through the day she can be quite a butterfly.

We do have a bit of TV time around supper. Only a recent thing. She watches Shaun the Sheep - and as there is no real talking in the programme we chat about what's happening. She now mimics this and tells us in simple terms what is happening and what the characters might be feeling i.e. Bitzer's sad or grumpy.

It's fun and I suppose my feeling is she is tiny and there is plenty of time before she needs to move on to more formal type styles of learning.

Books
Chatting
Singing
And sitting down around the dining table for meals letting them listen to you sharing conservation with others at mealtimes. Hopefully they will want join in.

Talking to your toddler as much as possible and generally interacting alot with them.
Don't let them watch too much T.V.
Don't let them have a soother stuck in their mouth too much.
Singing songs with them.
Reading books together.
Eating meals around the table as a family.