Helping your toddler to talk

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”.

You can help encourage your child to speak more words. When you talk to your child highlight the 2 most important words in the sentence. They may then repeat the words back to you. For example:

Adult: “What is that noise?”

Child: “Dog.”

Adult: “Yes, the dog is barking.”

Do not try to force your child to say more words, gentle encouragement is better than pressuring them.

It’s very important to talk to your child when you play with them. It helps them learn and understand more words in context. 

When you play with your child, tell your child what is going on. For example, if you are playing with your child’s teddy bear, you should say all the things the teddy is doing like “Teddy jump”, “teddy sleep” “teddy dance”.

You can do this in a range of situations like when you are cooking dinner or tidying up after play. You can use this time as an opportunity to teach more words to your child.

Try to use a doing word (verb) as the second word in the sentence.

This is when you start a sentence and encourage your child to finish it. For example, “Katie, you want a…?” whilst holding the drink for your child.

When you start to use this method, your child may not finish the sentence. You will need to finish the sentence for them after a pause. In time, your child will know what is expected and fill in the gap.

You can also use this method when talking about what your child is doing. For example, when playing with toy trains you could say “Oh you’re playing with….? Train” or “The train goes…. Choo choo!”

Make sure to praise your child when they complete the sentence.