How to take your child from 5 to 50 words!
By the age of two years old we expect children to have around 50 words in their vocabulary and to be putting 2 words together. This blog post is for you if your little one is aged 2+ and is saying handful of single words.
Make sure you have the foundations covered!
For all children, regardless of whether talking is easy or hard for them, these are the foundations you want to make sure you have covered.
Reduce questions
It’s really easy to fall into the trap of asking children lots and lots of questions when talking is a little tricky for them. I totally get it, we want to check they are learning new words, and to see those signs of progress. Unfortunately, this does not help children develop their communication skills. So, try to reduce the questions & replace them instead with a comment.
Model words in context
This is linked to the above point. You might be wondering ‘what does modelling mean?’ Comment or label what your child is doing, looking at, playing with. It is important to follow their focus as this helps little ones attach meaning to the words you say.
Play & have fun
Children learn best when they’re having fun, so get involved in their interests and enjoy! All that lovely language you are modelling will worm it’s way in there even if it doesn’t seem like it is.
Choose your vocab!
Once you know you have all the basics covered it’s time to be a little more intentional with the way you support your little one. Here are the next steps to take…
Write a word list of 20-30 words (I know that seems like a lot but if you follow these steps it won’t feel so scary!).
Choose words that your little one doesn’t already use.
Choose words for things they want (if they don’t want Broccoli there is no point this being in the list, if they love it then go for it!).
Mix up words to ask for items, people and actions (cuddle, jump, swing, tickle).
Once you have your master list choose 5 of the most important words and have those as your words of the week!
Tell everyone in their world what these words are (teachers, childminders, grandparents, write it on the fridge, in your phone, wherever you’ll see it!).
Provide opportunities for your little one to hear these words (e.g. if ‘swing’ is one of your words… go to the park this week, or choose it on a week you were planning on going!).,
When you get to the end of the week, take stock – any new words you have heard? Want to keep going with those 5 or move onto the next? It’s up to you, you can always circle back to them later.
Enjoy and let me know how you get on over on Instagram @sw_speechtherapy!
