I remember when my child was nearing their 2nd birthday. I had a newborn baby at the time and needless to say I was exhausted and overwhelmed. With very little family around, It felt like i was in a constant state of survival. The thing that makes this really stand out is that I am actually a Speech Language Pathologist, and I had not been paying close attention to the signs.
I remember thinking about a second birthday and thinking about planning for a birthday when it finally hit me, I have an almost 2 year old…..and their language isn’t quite where it should be. After realizing it, and after beating myself up about it for a little bit I took action. I told my husband my plan to go full SLP mode on my child and implement the strategies that I have used on countless other children.
As I think about the situation that I found myself in I really felt for all of the families that I have worked with in the past. Because if I as a speech pathologist found it hard to spot, I can imagine how it is for most families.
What helped my late talker get started
Although every child is different there are a few things I can share here that helped my son begin his journey. Please keep in mind this is not professional advice, and if you feel your child needs support please find a speech therapist.
- The first thing is to get an assessment to make sure that your baby is not having any trouble hearing. In order for children to speak they need hear the word clearly so that they can learn to imitate. This is why when speech therapists evaluate children this is typically one of the first things we need to rule out.
- Although every child is different and their may be many different reasons for your child not talking, one thing that I like to recommend is just to encourage more vocalizations in general. If your child is quiet, find activities that will get them singing, yelling, and just playing with sounds. In my case, I realized my son was very seldom vocalizing at all. So I began to incorporate more games that were very exciting and got him to make a lot of noise. We did a lot of chasing games, wrestling, swinging, laughing. Anything that would make his voice come out. I often like to start here, because we can later work on shaping the sounds into words, but first we just need to get them to do as much vocal play as possible.
- I chose very simple words for him to start with. Just like a person wouldn’t jump from no exercise to running a marathon same goes here. We can’t expect children straight to sentences or even whole words! As a speech therapist, it is my job to know the progression of how a child learns language…which types of words they say first and how that developes eventually into sentences. So aside from just making sounds and vocal play…one of the first steps is what we call reduplicated babbling. These are the words that have the same syllable repeated twice. These words are actually so fun in speech sessions and kids love them. Recently a speech therapist created a book with these types of words and I thought why didn’t I think of that! What a great idea. What I have always done in my sessions is take any book and just use these types of words while looking through pictures, but this book will definitely make it easier on parents and I highly recommend it. Some words I love to use include: choo-choo, night night, bye bye, pop pop, uh oh.
If you're in this situation right now
If you find yourself in this situation right now, I know it can be overwhelming and scary on top of all the things you have on your plate as a mother. I hope that this bit of advice helps you get started on your journey. Because honestly as a mother of two children who had delayed speech and as an SLP with over 15 years experience, I can honestly say that it is the family that has the biggest impact. When parents are fully on board and practice at home that makes the world of a difference.
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