At Adeline's first birthday she was only babbling "mama" One of the things people ask me about most often is, How did you get Adeline to talk? or What toys do you like to get your toddler to talk?   At 14 months old, Addie was not talking, she was only babbling "mama".  We decided to enroll her in speech therapy privately through our insurance and also through our Maryland state early intervention program which is called Infants & Toddlers. At the time, many people told us to wait, and Infants and Toddlers really did not want to add kids for speech until they were two. digitalinnovationshow provide you more guide. At 14 months old, we began speech therapy 6x per month With a lot of persistence I got her those services.  Before we started therapy we had assessments and even though I knew she was behind her testing results were a pretty big shock to me. At 14 months old, she scored in the 4-6 month old range.  Adeline received speech therapy 6x per month for nearly a year and I worked with her daily.  As a special educator who primarily worked with little ones with language delays or with autism I had a lot of tricks in my bag, but still needed to expertise of a speech language therapist.  With therapy, coupled with a lot of effort and practice, good nutrition, follow through, creating a language based environment, sign language, some great toys, and a motivated Addie Belle we made some incredible gains.   This year on her second birthday we redid her testing and at 24 months she scored in the 24-36 month old range! She made almost 20-30 months worth of progress in less than 12 months time.  It was pretty exciting and kind of unheard of.  Infants and toddlers dismissed her from therapy, and we still see her private speech/language therapist monthly mainly for feeding and to work on any little issues that come up.   I decided to come up with a list of my favorite toys to get your toddler talking, check these speech-language pathologist assistant job positions. “AT 14 MONTHS OLD, ADDIE’S LANGUAGE SKILLS WERE IN THE 4-6 MONTH OLD RANGE. I KNEW SHE WAS BEHIND, BUT THOSE SCORES WERE A WAKE UP CALL. ” The best gift or thing you can give to your child to help with their language development is YOU.  Your TIME, DEDICATION, ATTENTION, FOLLOW THROUGH, CONSISTENCY, is going to be the thing that makes the most difference.  You can have all the toys in the world, but if you aren't playing/talking/reading/ and spending meaningful 1:1 undivided attention with your child, they are not going to make progress. A FEW OTHER TIPS FOR INCREASING LANGUAGE DURING PLAY WITH YOUR TODDLER; Before you start scrolling through my list of toys that will get your toddler talking, here are some general guidelines to keep in mind when choosing a toy. GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING TOYS Even Jpeg gets involved in reading with Addie Belle Battery Free: there are exceptions to the rule, but you want your kids to say the words or make the sounds that the toy is making.  When playing with a car toy, you want your kiddo to honk the horn and say" beeeep!" If a great  toy comes with noises - just ditch the batteries Open Ended Toys: you want toys that can be used in a variety of way, have no beginning, middle, or end, that can be used over time, and they allow your kiddo to use their imagination. Traditional Toys: go back to basics and think about what you had when you were a kid; legos, blocks, cars and trucks, farm. etc. keep it simple and old school Swinging gets her moving, outdoors, and is perfect to practice verbal routines such as "ready, set, GO!" Meaningful: choose toys that relate to a meaningful experience for your kiddo; role play like feeding, bathing, dressing Developmentally Appropriate: think about where your kiddo is developmentally when choosing a toy. If they are two years old, but functioning at a 6-9 month old, choose a toy more appropriate for a 6-9 month old. Meet them where they are! Encourage Social Interaction: choose toys that can encourage social interaction and take turns; play kitchen, etc. Don't Worry About Gender: do not stick to gender specific toys - girls need to play with construction toys and every boy needs a doll. Get them Moving/Go Outdoors: consider toys that get them moving (ride on toy) and think of toys that be used outside; playhouse, water table, etc. “WHAT SET THE HIGHEST-SCORING TOYS APART WAS THAT THEY PROMPTED PROBLEM SOLVING, SOCIAL INTERACTION, AND CREATIVE EXPRESSION IN BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS. INTERESTINGLY, TOYS THAT HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN VIEWED AS MALE ORIENTED—CONSTRUCTION TOYS AND TOY VEHICLES, FOR EXAMPLE—ELICITED THE HIGHEST QUALITY PLAY AMONG GIRLS. SO, TRY TO SET ASIDE PREVIOUS CONCEPTIONS ABOUT WHAT INSPIRES MALE AND FEMALE PLAY AND OBJECTIVELY OBSERVE TOY EFFECTS TO BE SURE BOYS AND GIRLS EQUALLY BENEFIT FROM PLAY MATERIALS.” — THE IMPACT OF SPECIFIC TOYS ON PLAY FROM THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN (NAEYC). Do not focus on gender when choosing toys SOME "SPEECHY" TERMS I USE Many of these terms are used throughout my recommendations of certain toys so I felt it was important to define them. Expectant Pause: Provide opportunities for your child to use language, without asking them directly to repeat what you say, or to label objects.  (E.g. in a book, you might be reading a story to your child where the last word in each sentence rhymes.  Once your child is familiar with a book, read the first part of the sentence leaving off the last word, pause and look at your child.  Wait for several seconds.  If the child responds, praise and keep going. If not, provide the child with an acceptable response (model) and then continue with the story.) Model: Rather than testing your child’s knowledge, see your job as giving your child lots of models.  For example when looking at a book, you can describe the pictures to your child. The length and complexity of your models will depend on the child’s age.  For example, if a child is 2 years of age, you might model using 2 – 3 word sentences. Try not to give a model and then expect your child to repeat and  take the pressure off your child to ‘perform’. Expressive Language: the use of words, sentences, gestures, sign, and writing to convey meaning and messages to others. Receptive Language: means the ability to understand information. It involves understanding the words, sentences and meaning of what others say or what is read. Joint Attention: shared attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. It is achieved when one individual alerts another to an object by means of eye-gazing, pointing or other verbal or non-verbal indications. Word Approximation:  the best consonant-vowel combinations a child is able to produce and most closely resemble the word they are attempting to verbalize. For example, instead of "milk", Addie says "muck". These word approximations serve as functional communication Verbal Routines: a tool that Speech Language Pathologists use to encourage speech in the late talker. Verbal routines are made up of words that are repeated at a predictable time during an activity One common verbal routine is saying “ready, set, go.” during activities Symbolic Play: ability of children to use objects, actions or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas as play. A child may push a block around the floor as a car or put it to his ear as a cell phone BABY DOLLS Every child should have a baby doll and that includes boys and for the purpose developing language I would not recommend a doll that talks, eats, needs batteries, etc. I love a doll for so many skills; language, cognitive, fine motor, and self-help skills. Dolls can be used to teach body parts, receptively or expressively. It also shows them their nose does not just apply to their own nose. Use the doll to teach basic concepts such as prepositions; baby in the bed, baby under the blanket. Use the doll to teach verbs or feelings; eat, drink, sleep, sit, stand, hungry, sleepy, thirsty, and more. You can ask your child questions to work on his understanding of these words while he plays. “Where is baby?” PLAY KITCHEN Children love playing with food and the kitchen provides so many language opportunities and this is a toy that will last a long time. There are so many vocabulary words you can teach them, play food is way more motivating than flashcards, and I like ntroduce descriptive vocabulary as I talk about all the ingredients. Kids love to pretend to cook and its very motivating. They get a chance to observe, demonstrate, and use action words such as stir, mix, cut, and roll. You can also play with another child to practice social interactions. Here are some links to play food and pots/pans that we love! BALLOON PUMP These balloon pumps can be used with water or air. There are endless activities you can do with this pump. You can blow up the balloon with air and say, "ready, set, (expectant pause)," while you wait for your kiddo to say "GO!" and then you can let the balloon go and it will fly all over the room. PLAY STORE Dramatic play opens the door for so many language opportunities and kids will love playing store for years. It is good to teach social skills, turn taking, pretend play, etc. but you can also use the cash register to work on requesting the coins/money and such vocabulary such as; please/more/thankyou/in/open/out/ help/click/stuck/uh-oh/where? I’ll also block the opening, and work on “move” or “move please,” if they want to put the money in the hole. The kids love it. You can also use a shopping cart or play food/basket to expand on your play. BOOKS I could probably do an entire blog post on why reading with your toddler is so important. So I will try to keep this brief for your sake but reading is proven to work! Kids need to hear words over and over again, and many books repeat the same words in a variety of sentences throughout the book, which helps children understand the words and offer opportunities for children to hear the same words over and over again with repeated readings. Kids learn language better when they are motivated, and books have illustrations with bold colors and offer imaginary topics (such as pirates, princesses, or dragons). It is also really easy for a kiddo to show their interest in books without words, by pointing, gesturing, drawing their attention to something or even choosing a particular book. Words are also more easily learning when meaning is made clear. It is not enough to just talk to them or read to them, they need to learn the meanings as well and books make that easy just by pointing to an item. Here are my lists of my favorite board books, fall books, and holiday books.-