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18 Sep 2006 05:00 AM

Toddler Talking Tips

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

One of the neatest transformations that you have a front row seat for is the transformation of your baby into a little person with their own thoughts, ideas and conversational gambits. For months after you child is born, you will have any number of conversations with them. Most of these conversations will be one sided - where you do all the talking.

Sometime around their second birthday, your child develops the ability to talk back. Their conversations may only include a handful of phrases and they may not have the ability as yet to say all the things they want to, but they are reaching beyond their limitations. They usually have a vocabulary of between 200 and 500 words. The average adult probably has a vocabulary of 5000 to 10,000 words. That may seem like a lot, but trust me - there are more than 10,000 words in our language.

How to Help Your Toddler

So now that your toddler is talking back, how do you help them to continue expanding their vocabulary as well as their conversational skills? Easy - talk to them. Talking to them is the best way to help them work out their conversational skills. In fact, the more you talk to them and listen to them, the more they will try to communicate. Here are some more tips on helping your toddler's talking ability.

• Don't correct them constantly - if they say us are doing something, that's okay, if they say me in lieu of I, that's also okay
• Build on what they are saying - if they say the car is big, say yes, it's big and it's red and it has two doors
• Offer complicated responses - teach them cause and effect in what you are saying - they might say it's raining and you say, yes it's raining, that's why the ground is wet - rain makes mud and the flowers grow
• Use nursery rhymes - nursery rhymes appeal to kids because they are simple, lyrical and rhyme, using nursery rhymes are fun - things like patty-cake and peas porridge hot and rub-dub-dub, baby in the tub (this is a particular favorite around here and my daughter still uses this one whenever she's in the bathtub
• Play word games and say the ABC's -- in fact, singing things like the ABCs is a great way to get them to put the ideas together - kids can often sing songs like their ABCs long before they can use them in any practical sense

What other toddler talking tips can you think of?

Related Articles:

Helping Improve Your Child's Language Development

Baby Sign Language

Toddler Antics: Do You Have A Little Nudist?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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