Helping Child with Words

Tim Robbins

Hi,
Our young fella is coming up to two very shortly.

I was late speaking (sometime over 3) because of some problems that could not be diagnosed when I was 2. These were sorted out, then I had some more problems and ended up getting a lot of speech therapy (back in the day when it was a lot cheaper :-)).

Anyway, our little fella is coming on a little bit slowly with the words. I am not thinking major problems just yet - because it's way too early. I am just thinking more "sort of a stitch in nine saves" and how I can best parent here. Also, the hassels I had are at the back of my mind.

I was wondering could anyone recommend some good books that I could read to him that might engage his imagination and help him a bit. There's just such a vast selection of books now and would really appreciate advice.

I'm thinking sort picture books. One word - picture. One word - picture style.

Thanks

zinzan

Hi,

Given your own experiences I can understand you wanting to do as much as you can to help, but they really do develop at their own pace - unless there is an issue, so try not to be too concerned about it...
Once they start to pick things up, the pace rapidly picks up, with new words being tried everyday. Our fella was two in July and since then the floodgates have opened!
There are plenty of one picture one word books out there with different themes - cars, trucks, animals etc. We have a machinery obsessed little man (first word was Digger!) so we have lots of those type ones!

However I think he got bored with those type of books quite quickly, so instead we moved onto books that are a bit 'busier' and have found the 'toddler's book of everything' great - on amazon here
We make a pretty rowdy game out of naming everything on the pages with cheering and clapping and he seems to have lots of fun.
The 'Richard Scarry' books have lots of busy pictures to talk about too, though they are prob better for those a little older

If books aren't your child's thing, sometimes just naming the objects they are playing with and encouraging them to babble about them helps too!

That's my two cent, hope it helps, Whatever you go with, make sure you have lots of fun!

crazy cat lady

We have a couple of 'babies first words' books and they are alright, I can't say that they influenced my daughters first words. After mummy, daddy, nanny, grandad etc.. her first words were more every day things like shoes, boppy, pram, car. Keep talking to your child and pointing out objects and naming them. Ask him where these objects are and I bet he's taking it all in and might only look or point at them to begin with, but will be storing those words ready to spill them out when he's ready. And when it happens they develop their speech very fast!

We always read stories to our daughter and we play music alot, someimes nursery rhyme type stuff, but she prefers just my music. She loves to dance to it! But my big advice would just be to keep talking! And try not to worry too much, I'm sure your little one is just fine

Cat Melodeon

I made my own books using the photobox website (I'm not recommending them particularly as I've had some problems with them re delivery times). Basically you just take photos of the people and objects your child sees every day and then upload them to the website, adding captions if you want to. You don't even have to use a fancy website, print out your photos and stick them in a small photo album (pref one with plastic covers to help with grubby toddler fingers) - it'll do the same job.

I found they really boosted my boy's vocabulary as he was able to relate to the objects he saw. I have one for family members, one for everyday objects (shoe, socks, teddy, buggy etc), one for places (home, nana's house, supermarket etc). It helped him make the connection between the real life object in his hand and the idea of a photo in a book being the same thing and sharing the same word. He was a bit slow starting too (22 months before he said much) but he's going on 26 months now and we can't shut him up!

Nursery rhymes or anything repetitive help too - sing the same song over and over when you're changing him and start to leave words out, getting him to finish the sentence. And it probably goes against most child development theories, but we have a Peppa Pig dvd that religiously goes on for 20 mins every evening for 'wind-down'. Our lad now knows nearly every word of it and loves to repeat the stories when we're getting ready for bed. I think it has helped him to understand the idea of a story with a plot rather than just pictures and words.

Hannibal Smith

I don't know if I'm way off the mark here, but I was never sure what to do with the word books, other than the obvious but I always wondered what was the difference in going through a word book and, say for example, pointing to something in a room and saying the word for it.

The thing I find great are the age old Ladybird Books, because they repeat everything over and over and before long your toddler can repeat the story back to you, so it really helps with language and vocabulary.

Anyhow, as I say, I'm probably way off the mark, but maybe it's something else to consider?

andala

My son, who is 3 now, was a late speaker. What we did to encourage him was to buy a picture dictionary and first point at pictures saying names of things and then we'd ask him where a particular thing was. A friend of mine who is a speech therapist told me that children whose speech is not coming along should not watch tv at all as it makes the right part of brain more active while it is the left part of the brain that's responsible for speech. Also, she suggested that we work on my son's lateral development. Apparently children with cross lateralisation start speaking late.

Also, it's worth to have the child checked by the gp to see if his hearing and tongue are ok

At 3 he is not a brilliant speaker but he's got no problem communicating. That is unless I ask him what he did in Montessori, to which the answer always is NOTHING.

The Princess Bride

I would recommend picking a few books from the Junior Infants reader list and reading them again and again.

The most important thing to remember is the need for young children to listen and hear the words,again and again.

Ladybird books are always worthwhile,but find a book you yourself will enjoy reading to your child,otherwise they'll pick up on the lack of enthusiasm- I always hated reading Rugrats comics to my children-a real chore.

I would advise against using gobbledygook words- always try and speak properly.Sounds simple but too many people don't realise that they are doing it. Eg:say look at the 'dog' rather than the 'wuff wuff', 'cow' rather than 'moo moo' - otherwise the child only has to learn the word a second time- they may not be able to say the word at first,but they will hear it correctly.
(I know a woman in her 30s who talked about the beep bop coming when her child was sick- she was talking to a group of adults(about an ambulance:rolleyes:) and it was very embarrassing to hear.)