how to encourage toddler to open his mouth when he 'speaks';

[lunarx]

ds, now 2, can 'say' a good amount of words, but with a lot of them, he is 'saying' them, without opening his mouth (you can make out the word, but its very mumbled.) when i speak to him, i look at him and talk and try to encourage him to look at me when he speaks (so he might understand to open his mouth when he talks all the time).

any other suggestions?

Does he open his mouth to feed and drink ok? just thinking maybe he has a problem with his jaw.

' i cant tell what you are saying - talk properly' works best with me - i also get it said back to me by said toddler

he opens his mouth just fine to eat, drink, scream;)

i can try that notanotter, not sure if he'll really understand what i mean though (maybe i'm not giving him enough credit!) - i do say to him to open his mouth so i can hear the words (or something along those lines)

try sitting in front of a mirror with him, and say simple words and exaggarating {sp) your mouth movements, then encourage him to repeat while watching himself in the mirror.

At 2 my ds could speak veyr well - full sentences, etc - but his speech was so unclear that to strangers he sounded pre-verbal. With time, and I think practice talking with more, different, people his speech improved and now he sounds just like any other 5yo, perhaps even clearer than some. He still lisps and mispronounces a few sounds, but he's pretty much getting there.

I really wouldn't worry, lunarx. Just make sure you talk face-to-face a lot, so that he can see how your mouth moves and sing with him becasue when you sing you can get away with really exagerated mouth movements. Ds also loved simple tongue-twisters (still does) and silly rhymes like the Dr Zeuss books. The clarity of your ds's speech is bound to improve with time and practice. If over a period of say 6 months or a year you see absolutely no progress whatsoever, then maybe it woul be time to take it further.

good idea, waterfalls!

thanks prettycandles, i know he's trying and he attempts new sounds and mimics words too. he isnt putting words together yet (like a small sentence) but the hv has assured me not to worry yet. (its hard not to!) i hope maybe going to a playgroup soon too will help (one where he's away from me for a few hours.)

is it shyness? My ds is much worse in company

notanotter> he's only shy when he first meets someone..

im trying to make more of an effort to talk to him constantly about things and to look at him (and make sure he's looking me, at least most of the time!)

I think the playgroup and time spent with other adults away from you will help. Like I said, I'm sure it was one of the factors in my ds's improvement. We as mums understand our children's speech so well that they don't need to make any extra effort to be understood, and it's just not the same to be told to speak up or speak clearly.

Actually, at that time even I only understood at first listening about 75% of what ds said.