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Building Your Toddler’s Vocabulary

The other day while we were at the playground, Dylan and I received a wonderful compliment. A woman who was playing with her little girl on the swing next to the swing where I was playing with Dylan remarked that he seemed to have quite a large vocabulary for someone who is two and a half years old. The woman is a day care provider, so she has a lot of experience with toddler talk. Her comment is very meaningful to me because I feel that one of the most important things that I can do for Dylan is to … Continue reading →

Toddler Talk

One of the most amazing things about watching a toddler grow and develop is watching their language and comprehension skills emerge. I never realized until I became a mom how absolutely fascinating something like that could be. It seems like Dylan has been talking a lot for a while, but I know that it has not been that long because he is only about twenty seven months old. Perhaps I have been thinking a lot about language development lately because Dylan is going through an intellectual growth spurt, which is common for children to experience at about his age. It … Continue reading →

Speech Development

Our second foster placement was a toddler. She didn’t talk much when she arrived at 21-months old. I was very concerned for her because I was used to toddlers who were vociferous. After four months living with us and working with ECI, she was much more verbal and had added a lot of words. I was concerned about Jessie’s language development early, but ECI wouldn’t work with her until she was two. She didn’t seem to make a lot of progress between ages two, when the speech therapist started working with her, and age three when she aged out of … Continue reading →

Baby Language

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With my first child, I never worried too much about “teaching” her how to talk. However, I did come up with one technique that seemed to work when she was a toddler. If she would mis-pronounce a word, I would simply say it back to her correctly. If she was having difficulty saying something, I would tell her to look at my mouth. When she was watching my mouth, I would enunciate slowly as she watched. It almost always did the trick. She would be able to say the word correctly from then on. Now, I have a boy and … Continue reading →

Toddler’s Low Voice

Jessie absolutely cracks me up. Her vocabulary is growing every day. She’s adding new spoken words along with new signs. I love talking with her. Her two newest are bless you and sorry. Anytime anyone sneezes, she’s right there to say, “Bless you.” I have been trying to teach Jessie to say she’s sorry when she does something wrong, and now she says it all the time. It’s really cute. Jessie has two different Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) therapists who come to the house. One is for development and the other is for speech. She just finished a cycle of … Continue reading →

Language Development in Toddlers

Two-year olds are generally talkers, though most of the time we do not even know what they’re saying. However, their words mean something to them. The toddler’s mind is ahead of their mouth literally. Their new motor skills are not coordinated with each other. In the mind of the toddler, all the words are right, but when they try to convert the thought to speech, gibberish comes out. Don’t worry if sometimes they sound like they are saying complete sentences in a foreign language. Most toddlers will gradually get better at forming their words in due time. To assess a … Continue reading →

Encouraging Your Toddler to Talk

When my daughter was a baby I spent countless hours encouraging her to say new words. Now I can’t get her to stop talking. EVER. Still, I don’t regret a single second I spent reading to her, sounding out words or simply describing each item we encountered during our walks through the neighborhood. If you are looking for ways to encourage your toddler to express himself through words, then consider the following tips: Nix the baby talk: Use real words. Don’t confuse your toddler with made up baby talk or weird sounds. Instead, use adult language in a pleasing tone. … Continue reading →

Ways to Engage Your Toddler

How much time did you spend playing with your toddler today? Childhood development experts recommend that parents spend at least a couple of hours a day engaging their toddler in meaningful activities. If you failed to make your one-on-one quota today, then consider incorporating these simple toddler activities into your schedule tomorrow: BLOCKS Toddler activities don’t have to be expensive or complicated. If you are short on time, then grab some basic blocks and start building structures with your toddler. Another idea is to use the blocks to make patterns. This requires some concentration on your toddler’s part, so plan … Continue reading →

Dogs Are as Smart as Toddlers (When it Comes to Hand Signals)

Two different studies recently took a look at how well dogs learn and understand hand signals. The first study (from Eotvos University) tested dogs against two-year-old children and three year old children. Testers used a variety of gestures like finger pointing, elbow pointing, and leg pointing to help the kids find a favorite toy… and help the dogs find tasty treats. Both the dogs and the two-year-olds had no problem with the majority of the gestures. Pointing with a knee gave both groups a little trouble, as did an arm pointing one way with a finger pointing a different way … Continue reading →

Toddler Language Development

Language development explodes during toddlerhood, with new words being acquired daily. For example when your your reaches eighteen months, his or her vocabulary should increase up to five times the amount that it was when he or she was only fifteen months old. First words The first words that a baby says are usually mama and dada. We see this across cultural lines, and it isn’t surprising that these first words are usually reserved for the baby’s parents. After that, the first word could be anyone’s guess. The word “more” is a popular first word, as is the name of … Continue reading →