Get Your Toddler Talking With These 7 Tips

“My 2-year-old doesn’t talk. How do I get my toddler talking?“

I have heard so many moms say this and often feel discouraged when their little ones aren’t really talking.

Talking is one of the milestones that we all look forward to like walking, so it can bring up a lot of guilt as a mother if we think our little ones are falling behind.

I can almost remember the day that my daughter said “Mama.”

It was unintentional but she definitely said it.

And she said it before she said “Dada” which made me even happier.

From that moment on, my daughter did not stop babbling.

During my absence from the blog, my daughter’s vocabulary just exploded.

A lot of her babbling when she was younger consisted of random noises and screams when she was younger.

But as she got older, her babbling started to actually sound like words.

She started putting words together and now at 2 and a half years old, she is starting to put words together that are now sentences.

I have a full-on chatterbox now.

All I do here is just share what has worked for me in hopes that it will help the next momma trying to figure out mom-life.

I know many people are ready to get their toddlers talking, so I want to provide some helpful tips on what we have done to get my 2-year-old toddler talking.

Here, I will discuss 7 tips that will help get your toddler talking.

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My Toddler Is Not Interested In Talking

Before we dive into those toddler tips, let’s discuss why your toddler may not be interested in talking.

Some toddlers still babble but are not interested in talking or saying words.

This does not always mean that it is time to be concerned or worried.

Usually starting at 18 months or even sooner, pediatricians start asking questions about your children’s speech and vocabulary.

I’m not going to lie, it can feel intimidating to answer these questions because you are unsure if your child is on the right track.

If your pediatrician feels the need based on your answers and observations, they may recommend that your child see a speech therapist.

Even though that is a great recommendation for children with delayed speech, it would make me feel like a failure as a mom about my child’s development.

We never had to see a speech therapist, but if your child does, that does not mean that you’re a failure.

In fact, speech therapists are great and can help with any language barriers that may be present even for children who are speaking.

If you are worried about your child’s speech development, here are some red flags to look out for in regards to delayed speech.

According to Verywell Family, if you answer “No” to any of these questions, you might want to consider seeing a speech therapist:

• Does your child try to speak? (Ex: Ba-Ba for a bottle)
• Does your child mimic sounds around them?
• Does your child react to their name?
• Does your child have multiple ear infections?
• Does your child follow simple verbal commands?

There are more questions that you can find in that article here if you are interested as well as other factors to consider as red flags.

Once again, if you do find yourself answering no to a few of these questions, that does not mean it is all bad and that your child will never speak.

They just need a little help.

Just consult with your pediatrician as I was saying above and consider getting your child into speech therapy especially if your pediatrician is making that recommendation.

With that being said, let’s get into some of the things that I did for my toddler to get her talking.

Get Your Toddler Talking With These 7 Tips

Limit Pacifier Usage

Does anyone else have a toddler who is addicted to their pacifier?

My daughter loves her pacifier and likes to have another one to hold when she is going to sleep.

Getting her to drop the pacifier has been rough and we are still currently trying to get her off of it.

But I know it interferes with her language and her ability to speak.

What we do is try to limit it to her only during naps and bedtime.

If I notice during the day that she does not have it, I will kind of hide it.

It is as if it is out of sight, out of mind.

By slowly weaning her off of the pacifier and limiting its usage, her ability to speak improves and she is able to pronounce her words a lot better.

Ditch The Baby Talk

It is very easy to want to “baby” talk to a baby because they are just that.

A baby.

I’m sure I fell into this trap several times before my daughter turned 2 because it is what I naturally wanted to do.

But as my daughter started understanding what I was saying more and more, I knew I had to ditch the baby talk and start talking to her as if I was talking to anyone else.

This leads me to my next tip.

Just Simply Talk To Them

This is a great tip mentioned by Marissa from Teaching Littles.

By ditching the baby talk, I was just simply talking to her.

And I was talking to her a lot.

I would often talk to her about what I was doing.

For example, I would tell her that Mommy is making breakfast, washing dishes, folding clothes, or any other chores that I may be doing around.

I would also name things that she would pick up or showed interest in so that she would have the word to match the item she was interested in.

And I would also make sure to talk and name things slowly in order to enunciate what I am saying.

By simply talking to her, she was gaining an understanding of what things were around her as well as developing her listening skills.

Utilize Play

Our children are already learning through play anyway so why not use this as an opportunity to teach them about the objects they are playing with.

While my daughter and I are engaged in some kind of play-based activity such as a puzzle or coloring, I use this time to say what she is playing with.

For example, she loves playing with this shape sorter from Melissa and Doug and while we are playing with it, I like to name the shapes she is picking up.

Like “This is a square” or “This is a circle.”

I do the same when she is coloring by naming the colors of the crayons that she is using.

Like “This is a blue crayon” or “This is a red crayon.”

So, not only is she learning the language, but she is also learning her letters, numbers, and colors.

Two birds. One stone.

Read To Them

I am going to repeat this tip again.

Read to them.

There are so many benefits to reading to your toddlers.

While reading together, you can point to objects on the page and have their name what they see or what is happening on each page.

Board books are a great way to start doing this with your little ones.

I have been reading to my daughter since she was a very tiny baby and we still do this at 2 years old.

In fact, I will catch her sometimes “reading” to herself and naming the things she is seeing.

We always pick a book during her bedtime routine to read.

Some of her favorite books at the moment include:

• Goodnight, Moon
• The Going To Bed Book
• Llama Llama, Red Pajama

Be Consistent And Repetitive

We all know that kids thrive off of consistency and repetition.

This also applies to language as well.

In order for any of us to learn a language, we would need to hear it on a consistent basis and need it repeated in order for us to get it down.

You will find yourself repeating yourself a lot when getting your toddler to talk because they may not start off saying the word correctly.

As they begin to learn a language, they will develop their own way of saying it as well.

And as their parent, you will find yourself knowing exactly what they are saying.

As cute as this “toddler” language is, we also have to teach them the right way to say it as well and we do this by consistently repeating it the right way until they get the hang of it.

Dr. Leah Alexander from Mom Loves Best recommends that instead of us telling them that they said the word wrong, it is just better to correct them by us just repeating the word correctly.

For example, if my daughter says spaghetti wrong (which she often does), I just simply say “Oh, you must want some spaghetti.”

Be Patient And Encouraging

That’s right momma.

Be patient and try to remain calm with your toddler.

Every child is different and develops at their own pace.

Some toddlers understand what you are saying, but are having difficulty verbalizing what they want to say which is still something to be proud of.

Your child’s language skills will begin to develop and the next thing you know, you will have a chatterbox on your hands asking you a million questions.

There is no need to punish or discipline your child because they aren’t speaking at the rate you want them to.

What they need is your patience and encouragement in order to grow in their language journey.

Cheer them on when they are talking and saying words correctly.

Just like you deserve patience when learning something new, they deserve the same from you.

Your Turn

Now that I dropped all of my tips on how I got my toddler talking, I want to hear from you now. Did you have an early talker like I did or a late talker like others that I know of? Let me know your thoughts and drop all of your tips in the comments so we can help another momma who is struggling with getting their toddler to talk. And while you are still here, check out my previous post below. Until next time!

• Read More: My Pregnant Stay At Home Mom Routine

Love,

Just Jass