Ultra Health Services speech pathologist Jennifer Benedik teaches parents how to develop their child’s vocabulary.
Benedik joined Global’s Laura Casella Wednesday to talk about milestones parents should look out for during the early years.
“Every child is different, there is no set stages by the day,” she explained.
“You can’t judge one kid based on another. What you want to see is how much they’re interacting, how much they are playing.”
While every baby’s development is unique, Benedik says there are general rules of thumb that parents can look out for.
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She says a one-year-old should have around a 10-word vocabulary, a two-year old might start making two-word associations and use a lot of pointing.
“By the time they’re older — around the age of three — you start seeing those first chunks, three-words at a time,” said Benedik.
“‘I see dog,’ or ‘I want juice.'”
Benedik’s techniques to help language development:
Avoid questions; use descriptions
A child’s vocabulary is not developed enough to form answers; descriptions helps them retain information about their environment.
Questions like “what colour is the truck?” can cause confusion, while saying “you have a blue truck,” will help the child absorb details.
Provide information for ‘here’ and ‘now’
Describe what the child is interacting with as it will help their development.
“You want to pay attention to what your child is interested in,” said Benedik.
“If you don’t talk about something that is here and now, your child doesn’t know what word to associate that with.”
For example, if the child smells flowers, talk about flowers; if they look up into the sky and see a bird, talk to them about birds.
Play and have fun
If the child is happy in their surroundings, they will be more attentive with their interactions.
“If kids are having fun, they’re going to be engaged, they’re going to be paying attention, interactive, that’s what you want,” Benedik said.
“You can have fun with anything. Language is everywhere.”