Helping kids to talk

[Trillian]

I'd actually keep up the "baby talk" to be honest. If I had my time over I would have worried more about my son's speech and I wish I'd "dumbed down" my talking earlier to help him. He's 3.5 and I'm being told to talk to him in one and two word sentences when possible. I should have been doing that 2 years ago! I'd say things like "Drink! Here it is". Offer lots of clear one word names for things. Then you can add the descriptors like you're doing. "Cup. Blue cup", "Apple. Yummy apple" etc. If she is pointing and using joint attention (look at you, look at the item etc) then I wouldn't stress though.

My DD2 had speech therapy and her speechie couldn't stress enough how important it was to NOT talk the way they did or talk like a baby to them. Speaking to them in short sentences is fine if they have a problem with comprehension etc, but if they say 'dink' for 'drink' always say 'drink'.

HotI, just keep talking to her all the time. Use words as much as you can. If she tends to point things out to you that she wants, always say what it is and not just give it to her kwim? And reading is wonderful for helping them pick up words as well. So you are doing all the things that will help her eventually gain words. She is still only little and at her age I wouldn't be overly worried unless there were other things as well, like not understanding you or not being able to follow simple instructions etc. If she had trouble in those areas, then I would be alert (not alarmed about it) but as it stands, it sounds like the only thing you're worried about is her lack of words, but give her time and they will come

[meow]

My DD2 had speech therapy and her speechie couldn't stress enough how important it was to NOT talk the way they did or talk like a baby to them. Speaking to them in short sentences is fine if they have a problem with comprehension etc, but if they say 'dink' for 'drink' always say 'drink'.

Good point- my son has trouble with comprehension so that's why we've had to go back and shorten the sentences. It took us a while to realise he had a speech issue at all as he learns in scripts so he says really long sentences but he doesn't understand the individual words. He was actually saying over 100 words at 18 months so we didn't realise there were problems then.

In my experience, the children not talking at that age generally end up talking- I'd be looking more for her social communication skills which you've already said sound good HotI as you said she points.

[Phteven]

Trillian pretty much said what I was going to say so you can read her post twice and the second time pretend it is me.

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Ergh, I have a non-talker too and we've already declined a speechie appointment. He doesn't have a single word, not mum, nothing. He's about 15 months.

He points for things he wants, he scratches at the door to get in or out, comes up to me whining when he's poopy or hungry or thirsty. Poopy is easy to tell, hungry and thirsty are harder to pick, the easy way is to offer him an empty cup and if he lunges at it, he's thirsty. He seems to understand virtually everything but Will. Not. Talk.

HOWEVER he chatters away to his 3yo big sister in what sounds like whale song, lots of squeaks and whistles. The pair of them make exactly the same noises and he copies perfectly all the silly noises she makes. But he will NOT copy us, only her. And she won't talk properly to him. Drives me bonkers that he's so keen on copying her and won't copy us. You hear stories about twins that make up their own language, watching these two its not hard to see how it happens.

[JLeigh29]

Ladies, it's nice to know DS isn't the only 'not so great talker'! He says ma-ma, dada, bub-ba (for his name) and has ooooooodles of noises (for animals, vehicles plus clicks his tongue, smacks his lips etc for other stuff) plus a few sounds (e.g mmmmm is more/milk/yum and lalala means music or singing) but words, not so much! At mum's group, most of the others say 'hi' and 'bye' and there's a few who say quite a few words. DS understands more than most of the others though and does a lot of gesturing to communicate, but just doesn't verbalise. It doesn't 'worry' me as such, but I often wish he'd hurry up and talk! And if one more person says that one day his language will just 'explode' and he'll suddenly get it, I'll scream!!
I think it's all normal, but I'd also like to know DS was on the advanced end of 'normal' rather than the other end, iykwim...

[Sunny Love]

Trillian and Kuaraiza have hit the nail really hard on its head in their post. Major rep points to them!
Im finding that our high frequency words are what DD is really picking up on right now (for example: please, ta, car, juice, Chevy (DS' name) Axel (doggies name), mum, dad, nan, bubby...)
Just keep talking to her
xx

[beansbeans!]

With the girls we ask them to use their words when they want something or see something, especially once we know they know what it is called, 'can' do it.
So when the point to their drink, I would just say 'can you use your words?' I would ask them everytime they wanted something. Eventually they got the idea that it was much faster to say the word than to point to what they wanted. verbalising everything helps, like you are doing as well. They will talk in their own time, and I wouldnt be too worried about it right now, but keep on encouraging her.

[HotI]

I had my MCHN appt and she wasn't concerned at all. Her advice was similar to what you guys said, just keep talking to her and she will be fine. I also discovered i was misinformed i thought that she had said last time that by 18 months kids usually have 50 words. BUt the 'standard' is 5-10 words at 18 months and 50 words at 2 years! And when we add her words up, she has at least 10. She doesn't use them all the time, but she can when she wants to.

Also, she was home with DH a couple of days this week, and he naturally talks alot more than me, and she seems to be more chatty. So maybe i just need to make more of an effort to keep talking out loud as well.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

See she's a talker after all by the 'norm' anyway.
She's doing well hun and she did say something new to me at the BB catch-up but i still cannot remember.
Send her to my house and give yourself a day or two rest, she'll come home and wont shut up - she'd be fighting to get a word in

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I babbled away to DS, talking non-stop, sang a lot - he started talking just to shut me up! To be fair, what sort of toddler wants to hear about how their vegetables gain nutrients from the ground? I did a mix of stating what I was doing and short sentences and talking to him like an adult. And just babbling about what I was thinking, which can be a bit bizarre at times.

Having said that, he was early with basic sounds so early talking wasn't that much of a surprise. I also detest baby talk and refuse to do it (aside from "aren't you gorgeous?"). I hate it when DS's mispronunciations are repeated by my mother and he continues with it. It's a flipping TRAMPoline, not a JUMPoline. Just cos DS got it wrong doesn't mean you have to re-enforce the mistake. How much did you laugh at me as a pre-teen for making these mistakes you never corrected as a young child?

Yeah, I also have issues, maybe I should have said that earlier.

eta - I read my DS Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings before he was 6mo - maybe it's the quality of the book you're reading? But then he didn't sleep without me reading to him and even then it took him a while. We did a lot of Discworld too. I have a friend who speaks well, speaks "adultish" to her children and her son didn't speak til gone age 2: he can speak fine, just decided not to. It isn't always the parenting (as a speech therapist's sister, I have to say it sometimes is!), it's often the child.

[JLeigh29]

I made a bit of a list the other day, of DS's words. I stopped when I got to 20, and there were another 20-odd animal noises etc. Plus all his gestures and sign language is another 20. So now I feel guilty for thinking he wasn't talking 'enough'!

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[JLeigh29]

'Durpry' is a word -it doesn't have to be properly pronounced for it to count as a word, as long as someone else knows what it means, and it's consistent. Is there other stuff he says that you maybe haven't counted as a word?
DS loves his 'doo doo' tubes too - does it with everything that's vaguely cylinder shaped. This morning it was the jar of jam as we were doing the grocery shop! lol