Tuesday, February 2, 2010

On a walk...

I'll never forget about a conversation I had with a dear friend of mine. Her daugther was struggling with language development and she asked me for some tips before she took it to the next level. I asked her if she talks alot to her child. She said, no. She just lets her be. She thought that was what was best for her, to develop her own way. I have to say I was shocked. I went on to probe, "for example, when your on a walk do you tell her what you see?", she replied with, "no I just let her look around and see what is outside, I thought that is what I should do?" When I told her without her telling her daughter what she was seeing she'd have no idea what it was she seemed surprised and excited that she could make a little change and probably get a big gain. Now her little girl is 2 and 1/2 and talking just fine, didn't need speech therapy afterall.

Not sure if it's that I had "talking" drilled into me for 6 straight years while I was in college or if it just comes natural to some people and not to others to know that you have to talk to your baby/toddler. You are their model. Without hearing you talk, they have no model of what they should be saying.

So mommies, the most important thing you can do is TALK! Talk all the time. You need to make an effort to talk as much as possible. Talk about what you are doing all day long.

One of my most talkative times with Mr. Kayden is on our daily walks. It always has been. I talk to him the entire walk, when he was tiny I would describe what I saw "I see a green tree with brown bark. Ohh, a pretty, blue bird just flew by." I would tell him what I was seeing as I saw it. And as soon as he could talk he started adding to the narration and talks our entire walk with me. I remember one day a man was a few feet in front of us on our walk and Kayden was about 15 months old and after walking in front of us for about 15 minutes he turned around and said "wow, he talks your ear off doesn't he!" at that point I knew what I was doing was making a difference. For a 15 month old to be told they are talking someone's ear off is success to me:) Alot of 15 month olds have very few words and my little man had so many he could fill up an entire hour long walk with talking!

So mommies, take those moments to talk. Teach your baby about the world, without you telling them that tall thing with green on it is a tree they will have no idea what to call it. And they need to hear it over and over before it becomes apart of their vocabulary. So when your on a walk, talk.

No comments:

Post a Comment