Here are some speech pathologist approved tips to encourage your baby to speak that doesn't involve screen time. By now you're probably well acquainted with your child's development milestone chart. While some babies start talking before they are 12 months old, some take a little longer to express themselves verbally, and that really is okay.
If you find yourself concerned about your baby's speech development though, it's best to talk to your pediatrician about it. Your pediatrician can refer you to a specialist who will evaluate your child and determine if intervention is needed.
When my daughter was about 18 months old, I was concerned about her speech development. When I talked to her doctor, her doctor told me at 18 months she should be saying about 50 words. I knew my daughter wasn't verbalizing that many so we decided to get her evaluated by a speech pathologist. Since she was screened at the beginning of the pandemic, everything was virtual. After our session, here are some tools they left me with and what I discovered.
SmartFelt Toys
One of the tips the speech pathologist told me to implement was to name household items all the time to her. I discovered this ingenious toy called SmartFelt Toys. SmartFelt Toys comes in packaged as either a house, the seasons, or a farm and it comes with an assortment of soft, felt illustrations that your baby can learn to identify and place in its correct location. It's a great game to help strengthen your child's vocabulary as well as expand their imagination. My daughter took to this immediately and started to arrange household items in their designated locations. It folds out like a board but your toddler will quickly learn that they can fold it into a 3-dimensional house. They might even try to stand in it! Each board panel represents a room with felt pieces to match the name that's illustrated on the board. It's a puzzle as well as a tool that will encourage your toddler to speak. Now my daughter points to and says things like chair, bed, clock, etc.
Sign Language
After my daughter's evaluation, I asked the speech pathologist if they thought it was too early to introduce my daughter to sign language. They encouraged me to teach her sign language and explained that learning how to use words is a large task for babies. With that being said, I searched YouTube for videos I can teach my daughter. Let me tell you, learning sign language was one of the best things I've done for myself and my daughter. Teaching her how to sign words like 'eat', 'drink', 'more' and 'all done'. I've noticed it helps my daughter feel confident with expressing herself if she can't always verbalize her thoughts and needs immediately. Now, she is more confident and while she still uses ASL at times, her words are clearer than they were.
FlashCards
Think Tank Scholar has a collection of learning cards for early toddlers to help them identify letters, numbers and animals, and first-word opposites. The cards are colorful and large but not too big for your baby's hands. You can quickly turn the cards into a song which will also encourage your child to speak. As your child gets older, you can also use the cards to arrange sentences which will help expand their vocabulary as well. When I used the cards with my daughter, I was shocked at how quickly she caught on repeating the words after me. Some of the words were new to her, however, seeing them on the card as well as seeing a visual gave her the confidence to visualize the words even though they were new to her.
If you find that your child might be experiencing a speech delay, there are ways you can help your child that will not traumatize their language journey. Of course, it is important to stay in contact with your doctor, speech pathologist, and medical professionals to ensure your child doesn't have any oral impairments. If you think your baby might be neurodivergent or on the autism spectrum, it's important to listen to your doctor's guidance.
Source: Moms Knows Best, We Have Kids, Tantrum Fix