Top 5 Tips to Get Your Toddler Talking

Today I’m compiling the first 5 things that I often talk with parents of toddlers about in our initial sessions to support their child in learning their first words or start expanding their vocabulary. If you’re a parent of a toddler wondering where to start with encouraging communication for your toddler, here’s my top strategies: 

#1: Play with environmental noises

Environmental noises are things like animal noises, vehicle noises, or general sounds! For example, this might include things like moo, beep, bam. Often with environmental noises, I include things like blowing raspberries, tongue clicks, popping your lips, and more.

There are a few benefits to working on these sounds. First of all, they often are developmentally appropriate in how easy they are to produce. They often include some of our first sounds like /b/, /p/, and /m/. Second of all, they’re fun and goofy! You can just have fun, focus on engagement, and take the pressure off communication.
Incorporate these types of sounds as you engage in toys, making sounds for your animals and cars. You can also use these sounds when you do gross motor play like tickles, “throwing” in the air, and/or swinging. 

As you practice these sounds, say the sound enthusiastically to your child in a highly engaging, fun activity. Then, pause. Wait in silence for 3-5 seconds to give them a chance to try the sound. If they try a sound, LOTS of excitement and encouragement. And if they don’t, that’s okay, just keep playing and engagement. Repetition will be key here! 

#2: Read to your child daily

There’s so many benefits to reading to your child daily! There is so much vocabulary and different concepts that we can learn through reading. It opens us to “experience” events or situations that we may not experience in our daily lives. 

I recommend to parents to read a book more than once! Have a book of the week for instance, and read it daily throughout the week. On Monday, this might look like just looking at the pictures to get a feel for the book. By Friday, your child may start remembering parts of the book and filling in lines!

Access to books doesn’t have to be expensive. A trip to the library is a great outing for toddlers! In addition, there are a lot of read aloud book options on youtube that I highly encourage parents to explore. 

#3: Use gross motor activities

Gross motor activities might look like jumping on a trampoline, playing on a swing, or playing tag/chase. Sometimes our kids actually benefit from these activities to get their body’s energized or engaged enough to start vocalizing, making noise, or communicating. Try pairing these types of activities with those environmental noises!

#4: Create opportunities where they are eager to communicate!

Your toddler's first words are most likely going to be ones that are most motivating to them. There’s no surprise that one of the first words babies and toddlers might say is “no”. I mean, the power in that, right?!? 

While it’s great that you can anticipate your child’s needs and know exactly what they might want, allow them a chance to communicate with you their intentions. Pretend you’re “clueless” about what they want and encourage them to show you. Maybe you’re playing tickles and they show you that they want more tickles by pulling your hands to their tummy. 

Have fun with this and don’t let it get too serious. We’re not looking for a power struggle of “say this or you’re not having that”. That’s not fun at all, for anyone.

#5: Be goofy! Be wild! Have fun!

The most important tip is to have fun! Parents can put so much pressure on themselves to have their kids say their first word, then have 50 words, then 200, and more.

Communication is supposed to be fun and powerful! Start off with encouraging engagement with games like peek-a-boo, tickles, and engaging in fun and interactive toys. Pair these fun, play activities with words by doing some of the other things mentioned in this post. Keep it fun and low pressure! You’re more likely to make progress if you’re both having fun!

If you want additional support or coaching with these strategies, schedule a free 30-minute phone consultation and we can dive deeper into a specific strategy or plan an individualized parent-coaching session for you!