!: What to Do If Your Toddler is Not Talking Yet

If all of your friends toddlers are babbling away and your toddler is not talking yet you may have surmise to become concerned. One of the things parents often use to gauge their child's improvement is how early they start talking. Babies start off experimenting with noises from an early age, commonly consisting of babbling noises, the typical "goo goo" and "gaa gaa" sounds, these will turn into "ma ma" and "da da". These babbling sounds at last expand into Mommy and Daddy. So how do you determine whether your child has delayed speech improvement and what do you do if your toddler is not talking yet?

On a daily basis your child will find different ways to shape their mouth and turn the noise they are making; the first step in their speech development. Parents naturally spend a great deal of time talking to their baby's but they do this instinctually and mostly to enjoy the collective interaction it offers. Many don't comprehend that this is also primary for the improvement of their speech and language skills.

Babies identify the sound of their parent's voices from even before birth; they become well-known with us when they are in the womb. Parent's voices are comforting for them, especially for newborns before their foresight is fully developed. Babies and toddlers mimic their parents; that's how they learn. The more verbal transportation you engage in with your child, the faster they will learn.

By the time your child is the age of twelve to eighteen months your baby should be saying words like Mommy and Daddy. Over the next year of your child's speech development, they will learn to put together small sentences and present their needs to their house members. By the age of 21 months most children can be understood by their family. If your child cannot present with house members and be understood by the age of 30 months there would be cause for concern. At any stage, if your child is not meeting the age thorough developmental timelines you should seek professional opinion. Trust your instincts, more often than not parents know best.

If your toddler isn't talking yet there are things you can do to encourage speech development. Keyword signing, otherwise known as baby sign language has been shown by researchers to increase language acquisition by up to 3 months. Children using sign language have the language re-enforced to them by the parent as the gestures are used in conjunction with the word. Parent's who use sign language with their children are often more aware of their transportation with their baby's and flood them with language on a daily basis. Gesture based baby sign language also improves word comprehension as the gesture is a natural movement that mimics the meaning of the word. Reading to your child is someone else leading strategy that will go a long way to improving your child's language skills. When they are exposed to reading at an early age they pick up on the way language ebbs and flows and are more likely to have an interest in books later on.

So if you are concerned that your toddler is not talking yet, collate the developmental timeline as make sure they are reaching the recommended milestones. Not all babies produce at the same rate and the general range can differ by months. If you are looking for ways to encourage speech improvement because your toddler is not talking yet, keyword signing and reading are both great places to start.