7 techniques to try at home to help your child if they have delayed speech
Many parents worry about their children if they aren't talking "on schedule." The concern being that the lateness in speech might slow the child down in school, work and life.
If your child is late starting to speak, you can do some things to help. Most of the solutions are really simple and require a small amount of effort. Check out the 7 things you can do to help your child if he or she is delayed in speaking.
1. Talk to your child. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends spending time talking to your child from the time he or she is first born. Start with little things like "da-da" and "ma-ma." As your child gets older, increase the size of your words, but continue to spend time speaking with him or her. Enunciate clearly and point out objects and say their names.
2. Turn off the TV. Your modern Family points out that having the TV on is bad for getting children to talk. With the TV on, parents forget to interact with their children. This lack of interaction may be the reason for the delay in speech.
3. Read a book. A really simple way to help a child who is late speaking is to read a book with him or her. Speech and Language Kids shares that by reading, you get to interact with your child, show pictures and teach new words, all while spending quality time together.
4. Use straws. Your modern Family recommends having your child use a straw for drinking all kinds of liquids. This will help develop muscles that are used in speech. You can use regular straws and silly straws. The silly straws require even more strength to pull the liquid through all the kinks and turns.
5. Ask questions. ASHA tells parents to be sure to ask questions of their children. Simple yes and no questions are a great place to start, but increase the difficulty to questions with choices in answers. Your modern Family takes the idea a step further by purposely placing items too high for the kids to reach, forcing them to ask for the items.
6. Sing. The Friendship Circle takes the idea of music and speech and combines them together. Children respond to music very well, so taking words that you are trying to teach and putting them to music may be all it takes to get your child caught up. You can sing all kinds of silly songs as your work and move about the house.
7. Black pepper butter. Many naturopaths recommend black pepper butter for treating stammering. INLIFE says to mix fine black pepper with butter and eat the butter in the morning. After a few days the stammering is supposed to be gone. Does this really work? You would have to be the judge of that as no speech sites recommend it.
Be sure to check with your child's pediatrician to confirm that nothing serious is wrong; but if your baby is just taking some time to blossom, then be sure to do your part. You can never spend too much time interacting with your bundle of joy.
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