Things to Remember:
1) Get down to the child's level - Try to maintain eye contact if possible. This allows the child to see your mouth and also see that you are communicating with him or her.
2) Follow the child's lead - Initiate communication while doing something the child is interested in.
3) Repeat, Repeat, Repeat - This brings up the "Five Times Rule", where you use situations that arise during the day to teach and reinforce words and use it 5 times in three different situations a day, over a period of 10 days to two weeks.
4) Label, Expand, Imitate, Self-Talk - Labelling is just giving a name to an object. For example, when eating dinner, point at the cereal and say, "this is cereal."
Expanding is used in response to a child's interaction with you. Generally you add extra words to make the meaning of the sentence clearer. For example,
Child: Daddy. Parent: Daddy help.
Child: Doggie run. Parent: The doggie is running.
By imitating what your child has said, you are showing your interest. It is also a way of confirming that you understand what he/she said. When imitating, repeat back the sentence using the correct grammar and pronunciations. This will let your child hear the correct form without saying that he/she was wrong.
Talking about experiences as they are happening, since this is when they are most meaningful.
5) Pause - Count to 5 to allow the child a chance to respond.
6) Create a need for the child to communicate - You need to enable situations where to get what they want, they need to communicate. Some children don't see the need to communicate and so won't make and effort to. Clearly, you want to give them a reason to try.
7) Use your voice and facial expression to communicate to the child that you are interested - If you are enthusiastic and entertaining it makes communication more fun and keeps your child interested in the topic. Use facial expressions (e.g., smiling, nodding) and vary intonation in your voice.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Typical Language Development
So here's a summary of the information we picked up on typical language development.
10-12 Months:
- The child says his/her first word. The child's first words may not sound perfect or may not be used correctly. For example, the child may use "dog" to refer to any four-legged animal. With practice, this production will become clearer and will be used appropriately.
- The child follows simple commands. For example, the child responds appropriately to "Put that down", "Come to Mommy", and "Give it to Daddy"
- The child seems to understand simple questions. The child may respond to questions such as: "Where's the ball?" and "What is that?"
- The child gestures and/or vocalizes to indicate wants and needs. For example, he/she may ask for very common objects such as a ball by name and/or may gesture toward the object.
- The child starts speech gesture games. For example, the child tries to involve the caregiver in "peek -a-boo" or "patty-cake".
1 1/2 Years:
- The child uses up to 20 words.
- The child uses connected sounds (i.e., jargon) that sound like sentences in a foreign language. Jargon is often accompanied by gestures. The child will often point to objects and make up names for them.
- The child recognizes the names of 1 to 3 body parts.
- The child begins to understand such categories as food, animals, and clothing.
- The child uses common expressions. The child may say "What's that?", "All gone" or "Oh no."
2 Years:
- The child uses 2-word sentences. For example, the child may use: agent + object (e.g., "Mommy sock"), agent + action (e.g., "Tommy go"). At this stage, a child expresses meaning through the tone of his/her voice and the ordering of words in his/her sentences. The child may use word combinations that adults do not use (e.g., "allgone juice", "more up", "no down").
- The child has a vocabulary of approximately 50 words.
- The child follows 2-step commands that are accompanied by gestures. For example, the child understands the request: "Pick up your toys and put them in the toy box" as Mom points to the toys and toy box.
- The child uses such pronouns as "me", "mine", "my", and "you". These pronouns are not always used appropriately.
- The child uses negative forms such as "not" and "no" in combination with another word. For example, the child may say: "No shoe" when he/she expects his/her shoes to be in a place where they are not; "Not go" when he/she does not want to leave.
2 1/2 Years:
- The child understands such prepositions as "in", "on", and "under". For example, when the caregiver says: "The ball in under the couch", the child will go to get the ball from the appropriate place.
- The child produces 2- to 3-word sentences. For example, the child may say: "Daddy go car", "Bruno drink juice", or "Me hit ball".
- The child understands the concepts of "one" and "all".
- The child uses approximately 150 to 500 words.
- The child recites rhymes and songs. The child may recite or sing rhymes or songs such as "Twinkly, Twinkle Little Star", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".
Keep in mind that this is just average; some kids will start earlier and some later.
:Duan
10-12 Months:
- The child says his/her first word. The child's first words may not sound perfect or may not be used correctly. For example, the child may use "dog" to refer to any four-legged animal. With practice, this production will become clearer and will be used appropriately.
- The child follows simple commands. For example, the child responds appropriately to "Put that down", "Come to Mommy", and "Give it to Daddy"
- The child seems to understand simple questions. The child may respond to questions such as: "Where's the ball?" and "What is that?"
- The child gestures and/or vocalizes to indicate wants and needs. For example, he/she may ask for very common objects such as a ball by name and/or may gesture toward the object.
- The child starts speech gesture games. For example, the child tries to involve the caregiver in "peek -a-boo" or "patty-cake".
1 1/2 Years:
- The child uses up to 20 words.
- The child uses connected sounds (i.e., jargon) that sound like sentences in a foreign language. Jargon is often accompanied by gestures. The child will often point to objects and make up names for them.
- The child recognizes the names of 1 to 3 body parts.
- The child begins to understand such categories as food, animals, and clothing.
- The child uses common expressions. The child may say "What's that?", "All gone" or "Oh no."
2 Years:
- The child uses 2-word sentences. For example, the child may use: agent + object (e.g., "Mommy sock"), agent + action (e.g., "Tommy go"). At this stage, a child expresses meaning through the tone of his/her voice and the ordering of words in his/her sentences. The child may use word combinations that adults do not use (e.g., "allgone juice", "more up", "no down").
- The child has a vocabulary of approximately 50 words.
- The child follows 2-step commands that are accompanied by gestures. For example, the child understands the request: "Pick up your toys and put them in the toy box" as Mom points to the toys and toy box.
- The child uses such pronouns as "me", "mine", "my", and "you". These pronouns are not always used appropriately.
- The child uses negative forms such as "not" and "no" in combination with another word. For example, the child may say: "No shoe" when he/she expects his/her shoes to be in a place where they are not; "Not go" when he/she does not want to leave.
2 1/2 Years:
- The child understands such prepositions as "in", "on", and "under". For example, when the caregiver says: "The ball in under the couch", the child will go to get the ball from the appropriate place.
- The child produces 2- to 3-word sentences. For example, the child may say: "Daddy go car", "Bruno drink juice", or "Me hit ball".
- The child understands the concepts of "one" and "all".
- The child uses approximately 150 to 500 words.
- The child recites rhymes and songs. The child may recite or sing rhymes or songs such as "Twinkly, Twinkle Little Star", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".
Keep in mind that this is just average; some kids will start earlier and some later.
:Duan
Friday, May 16, 2008
Introductions
Where to begin? My name is Duan, and I'm the father of Fox. Fox will be two years old in June, and he doesn't speak a word. Needless to say, we were becoming a little concerned. We contacted the good people at Kidsability and they put us on their 4-5 month (!) waiting list for assessment, but in the meantime we attended a session intended to give parents some information on speech development.
One of the things we were told to do was keep a log of our child's speech development. And being a big geek, I of course decided to make a blog.
So, I'm starting this blog for a couple of reasons:
1) Primarily, as a record of Fox's development.
2) Allow family and friends to follow along in the peanut gallery.
3) Disseminate some of the information that comes our way on developmental issues. If it helps someone then my work here is done.
So the homework given us at the session was to make a log every day of the words Fox uses and what they sound like when he says them. So right now, I can say he's made sounds, but can't say that he says anything with any consistency. So zilch on the list so far.
In the meantime, we've stumbled on to the CHILD Health Fair here in Waterloo region, where they have professionals who do assessments free of charge. Hopefully that'll let us know if we're dealing with a late bloomer, or something more serious. We've also borrowed It Takes Two to Talk from the Kidsability library. Let's see where that gets us.
:Duan
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