Language

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have had my fair share of non talkers or late ones (for what is considered late by normal standards). I don't push it but I encourage words as often as possible. They have to try to say it a few times before I just give what they have pointed or grunted too. I now have a girl who is almost 3 and has been talking for what seems like forever. She can carry on a full conversation with huge words and will talk in paragraphs. Her mom asked if she was learning this here and I said no I thought she was learning it at home lol. I really think the last few kids have learned from her!! She's a great teacher haha.

My sister in law is an EA who specializes in speech. I have asked her how to teach children to speak and she says it's really simple.....parents/caregivers tend to just say "say dog" over and over and over until the child eventually says it but this can take months!! What they do in speech is TEACH the child HOW to say the word...they pronounce what each letter has to sound like, they show them how to move their mouth and what position the mouth has to be in to say the word. I felt like an idiot...I would have never have thought of that!! lol.

I had a previous child in speech with a private teacher and one of her suggestions was to put pictures up....so on the fridge I would have pictures of juice/water/milk for example. I would ask the kids what they wanted to drink and they would point to the picture and have to try to say the word before I would give them their drink of choice. You can do this for so many things!