Ask an Expert: How can we motivate our child to speak?

How can we motivate our child to speak? He doesn’t seem to have any interest in imitating our words.

One way to increase motivation is to use toys and activities that your child is interested in, such as cars, trains, dolls or animals. Withholding and requesting high interest toys is a great way to encourage your child to use their words to get what he/she wants. To do this, withhold the desired item until your child attempts to vocalize the request for the activity or object!

Another tactic is playing with a toy that has lots of accessories or pieces. Then have your child verbally ask for each item they need to play with. If your child isn’t responding, model the correct word until your child understands that they are expected to imitate in order to receive the item you are withholding.

Featured Learning Toy: Farm & Animals

Farm and Animals

This toy is great for eliciting imitation and spontaneous production of animal noises and other simple sounds, such as “mmm,” or other eating/drinking noises.  It is an excellent activity for facilitating pretend play, such as feeding the animals or having them run, jump, etc. It is also great for learning new simple vocabulary by labeling objects and animal body parts. This versatile toy is perfect for children ages 1-3, as you can appropriately adjust expectations for your child’s responses.

Ask an Expert: My child is getting frustrated

I thought once he started speech therapy his language would explode immediately. Now my child is just acting more frustrated with his language skills.

Practice, practice, practice! Now that your child is being asked to use their language more often, they are more likely to get frustrated since you are making them work harder to get what they want. Now, instead of pointing and using gestures, your child is being required to vocalize and use more words. Continuing to model language for your child, providing choices in which he/she is required to use language, and encouraging your child to use their words to request items will all help promote continued language use. Repetition is key, and remember, building language skills takes time and practice!