Speech expert warns parents of mistake that can prevent child saying first word
As a parent, watching your little ones reach new milestones is one of the most exciting things about raising children. Rolling over, smiling, crawling, walking, and talking are all achievements no parent will forget when their child does it for the first time and many parents feel anxious when their little one is taking just that little bit longer to reach certain milestones in comparison to others.
Many parents worry about their children's speech and one speech expert on TikTok shared why how you encourage your toddler to talk could be doing more harm than good. Moira, a speech-language pathologist, and Mum of two, said, "Did you know, as parents, our natural instincts when talking to our kids are often hampering their ability to quickly learn lots of words?"
Using "say mama" as an example, Moira explained that encouraging children to say specific words adds pressure and could be hindering progress. Moira says, "Your child is much less likely to say a word when you're demanding it of them. When we just say, 'say this word', it's out of context, devoid of meaning - children learn words best when they’re contextualised and meaningful to them."
Instead, the expert encourages parents to use words they want their child to pick up repeatedly and in the right contexts - "pick up their cute little hand, touch your face and say, 'I'm your mama'" she says, "have your partner wave at you when you enter a room and say, 'Hi mama'".
Another important tip from the expert that she says will help your child's language to "explode" is to stop speaking in baby talk. Moira says, "There's a difference between child-directed speech which is that sing-songy voice with lots of rise and fall in your intonation and baby talk which is the purposeful misarticulation of sounds to sound like you’re a small child. Child-directed speech is good, it builds language in kids, but baby talk is not. It hinders a child's ability to learn age-appropriate word and sounds."
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The expert explained that if your child speaks using a mispronounced word such as "wa-wa" for water, you should respond using the correct word and not their version. In her final tip, Moira says that when children do say a word for the first time correctly, parents and caregivers should not only praise them but also expand the conversation.
Moira continued: "When your toddler says a word, expand their verbalisation into a full phrase or sentence with more meaningful words. Your baby says 'truck', you say: 'yes truck! Blue truck. That's a big blue truck. Beep-beep! Bye-bye truck! I've just given my baby way more language to work with and learn from and also, I've just become 1000 times more interesting as a conversational partner."
Many parents agreed with the tips, with one parent writing: "I talk to my child the same way I talk to everybody else and she's got over 50 words and tries talking in sentences even if it isn't coherent!"
Another added: "My mom has a master's in child development and threw an absolute fit when I was a kid because my daycare had me saying 'wa-wa'".
Do you agree with this advice? Let us know in the comments...
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