Most Effective Speech Therapies For Toddlers

As soon as your kid turns 6 months old, with every passing day you only wait for your kid to start getting hold of different milestones like, sitting upright, turning on her stomach, crawling, babbling and so on. A tear of happiness drops down whenever you see your toddler getting closer to each of her milestone. An unrealistic expression, a joy of excitement with a smile can be seen on your face when you get to hear “Mama or dada” for the first time.

Like other skills, talking and speaking is one of the other milestones to be achieved by your child. But, the age at which she would achieve this milestone may vary with other kids. Well before her first birthday, you can expect her to start with babbling easy words like mama, tata or dada. Most toddlers get hold of approximately 20 words by the time they are 18 months old and gradually they start to put the words together to form it into a sentence.

Check out: Tips to help your baby enhance her speech

Speech therapies of toddlers: Stages of speech development

The stages of speech development are same of all the kids, but the age differs. The following are the different stages of the speech milestone:

1. Your toddler starts to string sounds together or use different tones of speech by the age of 9 months.

2. In next 3 months, your kid will start recognizing the name of the objects like chair, bottle. You would also find her keenly observing the sound that you use.

3. As soon as she passes her first birthday, slowly she would begin to imitate sounds and words she would hear. By the age of 15 months, your child would start understanding small sentences like, please give me your toy, pick up your toy, etc.

4. By the time, your toddler turns 18 months old, you would observe her using around 20 – 30 different words and the number will increase as she grows.

5. She would be able to follow simple commands as she reaches her early 2’s, like “Please pick up the toy. Give this toy to me, etc.” By the age of 2-3, you would find your child with increased vocabulary and words would turn into sentences now.

Speech therapies in toddlers: Signs of speech delay

As a parent, it would be very hard for you to identify whether your kid is taking little longer to reach a speech or language milestone or there is a serious problem that needs medical examination. Here are few things to be watched carefully and consult a speech pathologist.

1. When you find your child not using her gestures such as waving to say bye or pointing out at the things.

2. When she faces problem with imitating sounds.

3. When your toddler is not able to receive and understand simple instructions.

4. When you find something indifferent with her tone of voice, such as raspy or nasal sounding.

Read: Correct your kid's speech errors

Parental speech therapies for toddlers

You should always remember that keeping speech stages in mind is very important but comparing your kid with another kid’s progress is not correct. Your child is different from others, so she will pick up things at her own pace. Below are the few speech therapy activities that would help your child to learn to talk.

Using simple sounds

Using simple sounds like ta, pa, ma, even when your baby is a newborn. As your kid grows, she will listen and try to imitate you. This simple exercise would help her to talk. 

Using simple words and slowly

Try to talk to your baby as much as you can. The more you talk, the faster she would learn. But, remember to talk slowly and in a friendly tone and use simple words. If you find that your baby repeating it incorrectly, just explain her calmly and gently the correct pronunciation.

Spend time with your kid

As a parent, it is very important for you to paly with your kid. It helps in building a positive self-confidence in your child. You can take her to the park and play games like passing a ball, identify the objects around, kicking a ball, etc.

Cotton ball & straw

This therapy helps in improving the oral muscles necessary for speech. You can roll down a cotton ball on the floor and ask your toddler to move the ball by blowing into the straw.

Encourage communication

Whenever your kid says something, you should motivate her by an eye contact. If she makes any mistake, correct her in friendly tone. This will help her to learn the correct way of communication.

Involve her in your routine work

You should always tell her what you are doing or while cooking you should make her familiar with the fruits and the vegetables. You can even take her out for grocery shopping. This will make learning easier and faster.

Introduce different shapes and colors

You can play around different games where you introduce different colors and shapes to her. This would help your toddler to distinguish between shapes and colors.

These little activities will help your toddler to learn the power of communication. But, these therapies are to be carried out with patience and love. If once your toddler is able to communicate effectively and confidently, then it would help her to continue the process of language development faster.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, based on industry experience and secondary sources. It is not a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a qualified expert for health or insurance-related decisions. Content is subject to change, refer to current policy wordings for specific ACKO details.