Your child will start babbling at around 6 months, and between 12-15 months, they start saying their first words. Some babies may, however, take longer, to between 18-36 months, and the most common question for parents becomes “How can I get my toddler to talk?” Sometimes they may appear shy, but they begin pronouncing some words and finally make a statement with a little encouragement.
How You Can Help Your Toddler to Talk!
There is no shortcut when teaching a toddler to talk. Parents and guardians must get involved in enhancing a child’s speech. Here are some great ways to help.
Create Opportunities to Talk
At around six months, your child learns to identify and grasp objects. This means that they probably have a favorite toy or snack. Try placing it out of reach and wait for them to ask for it. The most obvious reaction is to cry while pointing at the toy, and this is your chance to help them name it. If it’s a bike, you could say, “Do you want this bike? Here is your bike’’. Repeat the name of the toy several times so that they can master it.
You can also try this with their favorite snack. If you routinely feed your child with specific snacks, give them another one in place of what they are used to or what they like. Make sure you keep their preferred snack at a place where they can easily see it so that they ask for it. Again, ensure you repeatedly call out the snack. “You want milk? Here is your milk.” Kids learn very fast at this age, and if you do it well and often enough, they’ll start to recognize and ask for the bike or milk.
Use Language
You don’t have to always create situations to encourage your toddler to talk. You can do it naturally, in your day-to-day activities. For example, if you are preparing their breakfast, you could read out the recipe and emphasize the ingredients. ‘We will use milk and cereal. What will we use, dear one? Milk and cereal, say milk and cereal!’ You can also apply it when you observe a certain behavior in your child. For instance, if you find them staring at the T.V, you can ask, ‘Are you watching TV? Do you want to watch TV?’
Make Fun Sounds
Toddlers love imitating sounds, especially ones made by cars. Once the child identifies a particular sound with an object, they can easily start talking. The most common toys include toy cars and trucks. When playing with their toy cars, you can encourage toddlers to talk by making car sounds like ‘Vroom vroom vroom’ as you push the toy.
Use Gestures
Gestures help emphasize words and demonstrate actions. The use of gestures helps the child remember a word or words that have been said before. For instance, if you are leaving for work and you wave to say goodbye, the child will wave back and soon enough will start saying ‘goodbye’ back.
Give Choices
You can encourage your toddler to talk by asking them questions and giving them choices. For example, ‘Do you want a cookie or a biscuit’? When saying the words cookie and biscuit, remember to illustrate.
The above are some of the most effective ways on how to get toddlers to talk. Please share your tips in the comment section down below. I’d love to hear from you.
Laura Casey is a blogger, mother, and housewife who shares her vast experience in parenting, motherhood, and pregnancy. She writes articles on the difficulties and challenges all mothers face every day. Her articles have already helped a lot of people who deal with parenting. She draws inspiration from raising kids, Motherhood itself and blogging. Check Laura out for more information and inspiration.
