Speech Therapy

You can have speech sessions anywhere you have a mirror (even in the bathroom)… Practice those sounds by having your child look in the mirror with you and repeat sounds after you model it for them. You may need to exaggerate your sounds to help them fully understand how their mouth should look. For example “oo” as in “moo” will look silly but your child may need that extra silliness to help them know to round their lips correctly.

LABEL LABEL LABEL! Constantly talk to your child and label what you are seeing, tell them what you are doing, even name things by categories in the fridge (e.g. the fruit drawer). Exposing them to language helps them to understand it more and helps serve as a model for them to be able to use it correctly.

Ask your child questions… whether it be a yes/no

question, open-ended question, or even about something they are doing. For example, “Johnny what are we doing in the kitchen?” ‘cooking’. Helping them with every day questions may make it easier over time. Also give your child directions using prepositions to help them practice those skills.

Make sure your child is greeting others appropriately, maintaining eye contact, attending, and participating in back and forth conversation or games. Play with your child! They may seem to want alone time but it may just be that they don’t know how to build that connection with others. The more you comfortably enter their world the more open they will be to letting you in :)