Communicating with Your Baby and Toddler
Communicating with Your Baby
Communicating with Your Toddler
There are two cardinal rules for speech development in toddlers: (1) Be responsive to your child’s speech. (2) Do not correct your child’s speech.
To be responsive to your child’s speech, do something that is related to what your child has just said. If he looks at a glass of milk and says “Coke,” do not correct him. Pick up the glass and/or say “Coke.” In this way, your toddler will learn that speech serves an important function.
Not correcting your child’s speech may be difficult to do. Most of us are used to adults who can and do profit from being corrected. However, a young child may take your correction as a sign that he did something wrong. It won’t do any good to explain that you aren’t mad at him. Just refrain from correcting him if you possibly can.