Late talkers/Language Delay and How to Help

It can be very stressful when your child is not reaching milestones. This has happened with my own children in various ways, and giving up control has been one of the hardest things I have had to do as a parent!

There are some things we as parents can do to help. These tips may help your child on their journey towards communication.

• Follow their lead. What does your child like to play with? Maybe it’s not that beautiful, wooden Montessori toy that Grandma bought for your child. Maybe it’s a cardboard box. If a cardboard box is what they are interested in, then consider playing with that. Here are some ideas:

• Play peekaboo with it - model the word “Peekaboo”

• Put your child inside and push them around - model words like “go,” and “stop.”

• Pretend that it is a car - model words like “vrrrrrm” and “beep beep.”

• Allow your child to climb on top of it and jump up and down (with proper supervision) - model words like “up” and “down.”

• Hide toys underneath it - model words like “where,” “under” and the name of the toy.

• Increase your child's attention to your face and mouth. In order to increase your child's attention to your face, sit face to face when you play and bring all toys up to eye level. This encourages them to attend to how the words are produced when you talk and is incredibly important to learning how to talk.

  • Hold toys up to your face and say the name of the toy before you give it to your child. For example, if they are playing with a car, you might bring the car up to your face so that they can see your mouth while you model the word “car.”

  • When you read a book to your child, face your child and hold the book up to your face with the pictures facing out.

  • Look in a mirror together - play games like peekaboo, brush teeth together, etc.
    

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  • Play with your child face-to-face while they sit in a high chair or at a table.

  • Get down on the ground with them or even lie on the ground while they are sitting. The goal is making sure that they can see your face while you model new words. 

• Increase or modify sensory input. Increasing or modifying sensory input can sometimes help to draw the child’s attention in and encourage new word attempts.

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• Put your toddler in a swing. Stand in front of them while modeling words like “go,” “up,” “more,” and “weeee.” In particular, movement can sometimes help to encourage new sounds and words. Movement activities are also language rich! Swinging, being twirled around, thrown in the air, and going down a slide can all be motivating and filled with opportunities to model new sounds and words.

• Play with your child while they are in the bath or while they are at the pool. Many children are interested in and love water. You can model words like, “more,” “water,” “wet,” “up,” “down,” “in,” “out.”
  

• If your child is not ready to imitate words, try sounds.

• Many children will start communicating by imitating sounds before words. Late talkers sometimes imitate grunts, yawns, and sighs first before they will imitate words. Practice making these sounds with them to encourage imitation.

• If your child is able to do that, that is a great sign! You can then try onomatopoeic words like “moo,” “woof,” “bzzz,” “grrrr,” “achoo,” etc. 

If your child continues to struggle with communicating, consider making an appointment with a speech-language pathologist. They can help you determine whether or not your child has a delay or a disorder and how to move forward.