Tips to Facilitate Communication Development in Young Children
As a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc., when communicating with the children in your life, consider yourself a “speech model”. Children want to be like the adults in their lives, and we know children also want to be competent communicators.
When speaking to children who are learning to talk, model clear, concise speech, slowing enough to pronounce the beginnings, middles, and endings of words. Think Mr. Rogers; pause in between phrases or sentences. Repeat frequently. This enunciates consonants and vowels.
Children learn to speak like the adults in their lives by using sight, hearing, and the sense of touch. Using sight, clear concise speech increases information available to young listeners/speakers. Children can see the articulation targets, especially the most visible sounds-/b, p, m/. During play, hold objects up to your face to increase the child’s attention to your mouth. The child can pair what she hears with your concise mouth movements.
Using hearing, as you slow your speech, your child can hear all sounds within words. This is important because as the rate of speech increases, consonants are often “glossed over” and may be harder to detect with little, inexperienced ears. Consonants are sometimes more difficult to acquire as they require intricate, fine motor movements to be accurate.
Using touch, when appropriate (no poking, scratching, pinching) allow your child to touch your face while modeling sounds/words, and/or vibration of larynx (voice box). The child can feel a puff of air with /p, b/, windy /s/, buzzy /z/, etc. Turn your voice on with “zzzz.”, and then off with “ssss.” Using concise speech, explain the voice on/off concept. You can even develop creative ways to describe sounds. F’s are bity lip windy sounds, K and G are throaty sounds, M is a hum.
Many families report extreme difficulty in getting their child to use words or “just say anything”. There are some tricks; sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. The first suggestion is trying to intersperse using “say” with “tell me…, use your words…”, “mommy loves to hear your voice!” Overuse of “say” can become equated with constant failure and result in withdrawal, especially when the child knows he can’t say what you are requesting. Your child should be more willing to practice or repeat when feedback is positive, even if the word uttered isn’t perfect. Only practice makes perfect.
Avoid using, “Can you say?” Many children know that they cannot say requested utterances, and will simply shake their heads, answering appropriately. Then you have to deal with the honest answer. But if you give a directive, you give a little less wiggle room. For example:
Dad says, “Tell daddy cookie.”
Son says, “Taku.”
Dad praises, “Yes! You told daddy cookie!” Repetition of the requested word will help the child hear and learn to self-correct. This is achieved with no negative feedback, which could impact even the youngest of children’s confidence, and can result in giving up. If a child gives up, he could fall silent. It is imperative to avoid this. The following is a flow chart of eliciting speech:
1. Ask for word/sound/combo, tap, clap, or snap words and/or syllables while modeling.
2. Wait 2-3 seconds (depending on child: a child with autism, Down’s Syndrome, etc. may require more time)
3. Rephrase request, smile, have fun
a. Gage child’s current situation. Good day? Bad day? Sick? Well? Should I push further or relent?
b. Try backing up a bit and ask for a sound, usually the first sound in the word. Give more time,
c. If child does not respond, don’t withhold the requested object. Say, “Maybe later/tomorrow you’ll tell me…” and repeat word/phrase requested. This keeps the window open for future attempts. Or, perhaps your child would rather tell their siblings, or kitty, or anybody.
Stay positive! Accept any attempt. Use three Rs:
1. Reward: “Yes! You told mommy…”
2. Repeat: “Yes! You told mommy cookie.”
3. Respond: “Only one cookie. Dinner is almost ready.”
This encourages your child to continue trying. He may have to say “cookie” 150 times before he even gets close to being accurate, especially if he is struggling with oral motor development. Tune your ears. Listen carefully for close approximations consisting of vowels: “oo” as in hook “ee” — “ooee”= “cookie”. The earliest accurate sounds are often vowels.
It’s important to try to refrain from negative feedback (this could be subtle). “No, not ‘ooee’, cookie.” Most children know what “No” means. This attaches a negative tag to the communication opportunity. Remember, you are striving to stay positive.
If it’s a day when your child isn’t trying many words-teach language. Describe objects/actions. If your child is reluctant to tell you “chair”, talk about sitting in the chair, model sitting in the chair, talk about the color of the chair, size, it goes with the table, etc. Remember concepts of opposites; use lots of verbs; -ing is often the first word ending we hear from children. You can never talk too much to your child, but try to avoid talking over your child. Give her plenty of time to try words.
A strategy Early Interventionists use often includes oral motor exercises or simply moving muscles of the mouth. Your goal is to increase oral motor (lips, mouth and tongue) movement, coordination and sensory feedback. Speech is a series of rapid, fine motor movements we often take for granted, until we know a child, adult, or elderly person struggling to speak.
During oral motor exercises, allow your internal child to emerge. Do anything that promotes mouth, tongue movement. Wag your tongue, lick your teeth and lips, all the while humming and having fun. Children love silly fart sounds. Anybody who simultaneously laughs with a child after a fart has just made a dear friend!
Don’t forget sound effects. Environmental sounds: train goes “choo-choo!”, cars go “beep beep!” Remember animal sounds. If you’re not sure of an animal’s sound, make it up or think of movements (camels chew all day). This will often capture attention and promote imitations when all else fails. Remember, you want movement, sounds, and words! Sing that spider song and wheels on the bus song. Research shows large movements of arms and legs can encourage smaller (speech?) movements.
Speaking of words, an important strategy is called “expansion”. Expansion is something you will probably be prompted to do naturally, or as your parental instinct. This is when you expand on your child’s words, sounds, signs, gestures, etc. An example of this would sound like:
Child, “Doggie!”
Dad, “That’s a brown doggie…neighbor’s doggie, etc.”
This strategy encourages word combos, and we want children to combine words as soon as possible. We simply don’t speak in single words, and the ability to combine speech is imperative. You are also teaching context and sentence structure. Language and speech develop in concert.
Have fun, and before you know it, as your home fills with voices, some quite loud at times, you may occasionally find yourself longing for the quiet days to return.
Gina Harry, Speech Therapist
Gina H.
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