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Thread: Language

  1. #1
    Euphoric !
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    Language

    Hi!

    I have a young group (14-19months). I have 2 that are pretty good talkers so far (maybe 20 and 50 words) but still just single words.

    My oldest is almost 20 months and is not a talker at all. She is very physical and I haven't been worried. She communicates, she is very social, very involved etc. She just doesn't talk. She has 4 words, including mom and dad. She communicated through grunts. Endless grunts.

    At what point to I start to really push her moving beyond grunts (as in ignoring her grunts until she tries more words, telling her I can't understand her etc).

    I don't want to push her and punish her for not having words but I can't help that feel she doesn't try to have words because she effectively communicates through grunts. Since she makes herself understood with actions and grunts she gets the responses she wants without having to try a word.

    Any thoughts? She is happy and loves it here...but she definitely would have been better with an older group that was using sentences etc to push her along!

  2. #2
    Euphoric !
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    I would push her to talk because at this age grunting is not really acceptable and im sure I will be stoned for this point of view .....if it were me and she wants a drink she would have to say cup or water or milk or even please before she gets it pointing and grunting would not be acceptable at this point.....when she gets it she would have to say thank you or ta ta at the very least or i would take it back ....when she is done eating she would have to say all done to get out of her chair and so ....encourage her to say words by not giving into the grunts and pointing you will be amazed at how quickly she will become verbal

  3. #3
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    While generally I agree with you Crayola Kiddies, I'd be mindful of being too harsh too fast - gently encourage her to say "please" when she wants something, but don't force it to the point where she gets super-frustrated. I only say this because my own daughter didn't start talking until just past her second birthday, and she used to get extremely frustrated when we were asking her to say a word and she just couldn't seem to get her mouth to work the way she wanted it to - it resulted in colossal tantrums and freakouts. Eventually she caught up, but for a few months she was very upset whenever she kind of "clued in" that she couldn't yet say everything she wanted to.
    I also have a 2yrold dcb who ONLY says mama and dada, and is at this point very obviously in need of some speech therapy and an overall assessment (which he is finally getting later this month! yay!) as he has pretty severe eating issues as well. With him, trying to make him talk would get absolutely nowhere, he makes no attempt to use words, and only says the consonants "ba" and "boo," no other sounds.
    I guess my point is to just make sure they are capable of using their words before enforcing it too strongly, because for my little dcb at least, he simply can't, and I don't want to cause more grief for the little guy. Once they've started, for example, you got them to say "please," then you know it's just a combination of laziness or lack of confidence or taking the easy route by grunting, then go ahead and let them know that they need to try the words-just establish (or try to) that there isn't something more serious going on first.

  4. #4
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    This is not something I push. I encourage, and praise and run an environment that encourages using words, however if they're not quite there yet, I don't rush it. I have a 24 month old who said very few words up until last week when she suddenly exploded into over 100 words. If they can, they will, and most will eventually get there on their own. My own son, had pronunciation problems and was seen by Tyke Talk at age 3. Now at age 4 he is good to go and understood by everyone in time for school. My other little guy is 17 months and has very few words "see" "shoe" "mama" "dada" "more" and he makes counting noises that turn me into mush...I believe he will follow in his brother's footsteps language wise, and that's ok. He'll get there.
    I would encourage it more after they turn 2.

  5. #5
    Euphoric !
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    Don't stress about it. Encourage her to say words. I have a 2 year old that barely speaks either. He is starting to say more words slowly. Some kids just take longer than others.

  6. #6
    Euphoric !
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    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!

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