Speach delay tips

[yummymummy345]

Please can anyone help- Do you have any tips on helping a toddler to speak? He is 19 months old says dada which is about it, he is being referred to speach therapist but wondered if there is anything I can be doing at home? thanks

First, try not to worry too much. My sons have both had speech delay, one has Asd, the other doesn't.

The youngest is 2 y 4 m and has only just started to say a few words.

We did baby signing, which was ignored by DS1 (the one with asd) and is used by DS2 to great effect. He even makes his own signs up!

We just keep talking.
Offering choices
Giving him a chance to speak

Eg
..."What do you want for breakfast?" Pause
Him: hmmm
Me: cornflakes? Shreddies?
Him: hmmm
Me: cornflakes?
Him: shakes head
Me: shreddies
Him: big smile, " aah"

With DS1 he couldn't have indicated too well verbally so we had lots of laminated little pictures of usual food, drink choices, books, dvds, places we visit etc and would show him a selection from which to choose.

If you have an ipad or iphone there are some great apps for making little symbols and pictures for choices.

The key is encouraging communication, showing them it's worth the effort, that they get a reward when they make the effort ie something they want.

Other tips, read stories, lots of them. Leave a pause sometimes for them to 'fill in the missing word' even if they just grunt say " that's right!" Lots of praise.

My eldest said 'mama' for the first time at 2 and 1/2 and is now one the most articulate 5 year olds you could meet

Thank you blessyou and zzzzz wil do all of these things ..
My ds has other issues causing the speech delay so whilst addressing those issues, just wantde to do everything I can to help him out

The SLT advice we had was to have short sessions of play where we followed dd's lead on what to play and wrong language down to the one word level and be very repetitive. Also to not speak until she had made eye contact - which is really hard to do but makes a huge difference, I know she has heard the word ( I don't know if that bit is universal advice if there is asd etc)
hth good luck

sorry - brought not wrong

Agree with all of the above advice

We tried signing, whilst talking, with DD (moderate hearing loss & severe learning difficulties) for about a year and a half before she started to respond. The real break through for us was going on the 'Hanen' course and changing the way we communicated with her.

It's worth seeing if you can borrow a copy of their book from the library/ SALT (we used the 'It Takes Two To Talk' course book, but I think their 'more than words' is possibly better if your ds has ASD)

Thank you really appreciate your responses. I know he will talk in the end but feel the sooner he does it will help with other areas such as social skills etc.

My ds has hypothyroidism which causes delay in development including speach.

I will see if I can borrow the book from library- heard good things about it but quite costly to buy.