5 Quick & Easy Ways to Advance Your Child’s Speech Development

We all can’t wait for the day our child calls us Mama for the first time. It melts your heart, right? Well, what if your child seems behind?

Here are some common sense ideas to help kick start your baby’s brain development in the speech category, courtesy of SmartParenting.com.

1. Talk to your child.
Speech is a learned skill and talking to your child will provide more opportunities for him to learn and acquire that skill. Talk to your child as much as you can and be vocally expressive about everything that is happening around you. Here are simple things you can do to help build his vocabulary and encourage him to talk:
• Talk and describe what you are doing as you go about your usual tasks
• Point out names for various objects everywhere you go
• Name the colors of things around you
• Count various items
• Name his body parts
• Show him pictures of different animals, name the animals, and make the animal sounds
• Sing nursery rhymes

2. Ask questions (even if your child does not answer).
Some parents might find it silly to ask their child questions if the child does not really talk yet, but this is a great exercise for any child learning to speak. There are so many things that goes into this simple activity – understanding the meaning of the question, thinking of the answer, and putting words together to come up with the answer – all of which your child needs to practice. Even if you do not always successfully receive a response or you already know the answer to your question, just continue asking anyway; your child just might surprise you with a well-thought out answer.

3. Read to your child.
Numerous materials have been written on the benefits of reading to children and improved speech development is one of them. Although reading a storybook can greatly help in increasing your child’s vocabulary, simple activities like pointing at the pictures and naming them also helps. Slowly progress after several readings into pointing at the pictures and asking your child, “What’s this?” to encourage him to name the object, or asking your child, “Where is the …?” to engage him into pointing to the object being asked for.

4. Create situations that will drive your child to communicate.
Speech is a very powerful tool and this will be easily understood by your child if you create situations that will require him to speak and communicate with you. Eat your child’s favorite food in his presence but do not offer him any, put just a little water in his cup when he is thirsty, or place his favorite things in hidden or hard-to-reach places –- these are a few things you can do to “tempt” your child to speak. There are many more you can come up with depending on your child’s interests. The key is to draw a reaction from your child that will make him talk.

5. Lessen exposure to television and electronic gadgets
Young children’s exposure to television and electronic gadgets has been getting a lot of flak lately. The increase in the number of children who have speech problems the past few years is actually being attributed to increased exposure to television and electronic gadgets.

To read 5 other great ideas on how to increase your child’s speech development, go to SmartParenting.com .
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