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

I am by nature a reserved person with a DD at risk of speech delay because of a neurological condition. I've found Makaton massively useful, both because DD can sign lots of words, but also because it makes you think about and emphasise the important words in the sentence and keep language simple. I find myself channelling Mr Tumble quite a lot even though he is irritating, DD loves him.
Books, books and more books,and although it is probably frowned upon here, some iPad apps are very helpful. We use a speech app called Splingo which has hugely increased DD's receptive vocabulary.

Lots of looking at books- not necessarily reading them but looking at the pictures and naming what they point out.

answer your little one's implied or actual "what's that" "why" "I need that" (within reason of course) even when you're tired or want quiet, really does seem to get them talking. And read that extra book they ask for at night

Read, talk to them allowing them time to respond....

Get to your child's level, chat and sing!

Encourage conversations - so even if words aren't quite ready to come out you are skill developing interactive skills

Like others have said, Narrate what you are doing, what they can see, things around you but also give them time to digest what they've heard, when they are babbling or making certain sounds, copy them and then make a word out of it e.g.DS says "ma" so I say "mama", "brrrmm", I say, "brrrmm car goes brrrmm".
DS is 3 nonverbal ASD, more tips we've picked up is to use pictures cards and signs to help with speech. Don't be saying long sentences , just say the main words "shoes on" "go to car". You can tailor it to the child's development but keep it simple

Labelling everything and commenting on everything! Share books together is great too, sometimes just talking about the pictures rather than reading the story.

I think what helped us was

Lots of reading from being a baby
I constantly talked to him it felt odd at times pushing a pushchair and talking about what was going on around us or telling him a story. But I think all the interaction you can give helps.

Lots of repetition of words.

Songs, music and rhyming/repetative books. Find one that they enjoy if they aren't keen on all of them.

Talk, talk, talk to them.

Just chat to your toddler as you go about your day and give them chance to respond, even if they just babble they are learning.

Don't worry & stress. Your child will pick up on it. Some children just take longer than others. My daughter didn't talk properly by 2& a half yrs so I took her to 2 different talk&play groups & was referred to a speech therapist. I worried& stressed&cried all for nothing. She doesn't shut up now!! Talks non-stop from the moment she wakes up till she goes to sleep. Just talk to your child constantly, read books daily and go to the library.

No baby talk! I can't stand baby talk and silly words for things, why teach them one thing and then have to teach them the "proper" word?! My Sister is all "bot bot" for bottle and other stupid words, they are small humans talk to them normally!! Sing song voices etc are fine but stick to actual real words.

Wilberforce2 - I'm completely with you on that one. Had a real battle with MIL using ridiculous words for things, it's much easier teaching them the correct word once than teaching them a stupid word and having you or someone else correcting them later on.

I agree with much above.with my Grandchild who is 2 and bilingual I give him a running commentary of everything we see from the car or walking. A car, a white car, a big red lorry, a van, a digger (favourite), a red fire engine etc etc. At first they repeat and you can check they're understanding by saying eg "pick up the red car" and if they do you're getting there and speech will follow as long as there is no specific problem which speech therapy should address. My friend's son spoke total gobbly gook until about aged 4 when he started speaking in whole sentences - they're all different!

Talking about anything and everything, also using a broad range of language e.g. Not just big but ginormous enormous etc when describing things

Early days keeping tv to a minimum and talking and reading loads. We have tons of books which we read from day one and my 3 year old is a brilliant talker. Sometimes too much so!!

Talk to them all the time. Tell them what you are doing, give the the names for all the things you see and sing to them.

Time with slightly older kids is very helpfule for their development

just keep talking to them

Give praise, but correct them as they make mistakes and get them to say it again.

read every day to them. also try to repeat words back to them correctly. My son used to call yogurts 'worts' and because it was cute we all used to call them 'worts' as a joke. It was only when we stopped that he actually said 'yogurt'. Really obvious really!

We sing the rhymes from nursery school, and ask DD questions that require more than "Yes" or "No", Also, learning how to wait your turn in a conversation is important, our DD, bless her loves to wade in before everyone else! We teach her to say "Good Morning" when she gets up, and when doing different things will ask her "What's this?" so she knows the names of different objects.

Reading lots and trying to have conversations about things they are interested in.

Did anyone receive their books yet?