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Helping your toddler to talk
- 0-1 Years
- 1-5 Years
- SEND
- Child development and growing up
- Speech, language and communication
Every child is different and may start speaking earlier or later than others. Parents can have a big impact on their toddler’s talking. There are lots of ways you can help at home.
Explore the topics on this page:
Talking and playing
The best way to support your toddler’s talking is through playing and talking to them.
It’s very important to talk to your child when you play with them. It helps them learn and understand words in context.
When you play with your toddler, get down to their level and tell them what’s going on. Watch your toddler and see what interests them. It doesn’t matter what they are doing, as long as they are having fun. Make a comment about what is happening, for example:
‘crash!’,
‘uh-oh!’, ‘
‘pop the bubbles!’,
‘teddy is sleeping’,
‘the train is fast!’
Keep talking to your child throughout the day such as when you are cooking dinner or tidying up after play. You can use this time as an opportunity to say more words to your child.
If your child repeats words without the correct sounds, just repeat it back the right way. You don’t need to tell them they said it wrong or make them repeat it again.
Ensure your toddler has every opportunity to join in with talking by keeping dummies for bedtime.
Modelling useful words
Some words are really useful because they can be used in lots of different situations. You can try these activities to help your child:
Gone, all gone or bye-bye can be used in a variety of ways such as when:
- a person leaves a room such as “daddy gone”, “daddy bye-bye”
- tidying toys away such as “dolly gone” “bye-bye dolly”
- your baby or toddler has finished their food or drink such as “juice gone” “juice all gone”
Repeating these words and phrases whenever you can will encourage your baby or toddler to use them.
When your toddler wants more of something like food or drink ask them in a clear voice “more?”. Repeat this as much as you can until your toddler understands what more means. You can try the following activities to encourage them:
During meal time, give your child a smaller portion of food or drink so they need to ask for more. When they ask, give them more food or drink.
When playing with puzzles or building blocks, pass your child one piece at a time. Only let them have more pieces when they ask for more.
Choose a game that your child really enjoys like being tickled or blowing bubbles. Every so often stop the activity and encourage your toddler to ask for more before continuing.
When your toddler is regularly asking for more, you can then move onto using 2 words at a time like “more drink” or “more swing”.
Try the following Ready Steady Go games:
- Cars: Play with cars on a ramp or piece of cardboard. Say “Ready Steady…Go!” when your toddler lets go of the car.
- Bubbles: Say “Ready, Steady…” and then pause. Blow the bubbles and say “Go!”
Towers: Build a tower of blocks with your child. Take turns to say “Ready Steady…Go!” and knock the tower down. - Ball: Roll or throw a ball back and forth with your toddler. Pause before throwing and say “go!”
- After a few turns, your toddler might say “Go” themselves, especially if you pause to allow them a turn to speak.
Helping your child put words together
You can help your toddler to grow their language by adding to what they say.
- If your toddler uses body language (pointing, looking, gestures), you can use body language and 1 word. For example, if they point to a cup, you can point and say 'drink'.
- If your toddler uses 1 word, you can use 1 or 2 words. For example, if they say 'teddy', you can say 'cuddle', 'soft', or 'cuddle teddy'.
- If your toddler uses 2 words, you can use 2 or 3 words. For example, if they say 'big lorry', you can say 'big red lorry', 'drive big lorry', or 'fast big lorry'.
Use lots of different types of words. You could say:
- Action words (jump, sing, splash)
- Descriptive words (red, fast, enormous).
- Useful words (more, go, help, stop).
Last reviewed: 1 November, 2024
