STRATEGIES TO

KICKSTART SPEECH AND

LANGUAGE FOR TODDLERS

Enunciate Your Words

Although baby talk is cute and fun, pronouncitng
every consitant and vowel when communicating
to your toddler will help foster their phonological
awareness. Refrain frm lazy articulation. EX.
“waTer“ instead of “wodur“. Encourage and
reward imitation. Repeat starting sounds such as
“aaa“,”mmm“, shhh“ and encourage them to
repeat it back. How to Tell if
Your Child is a
Late Talker –
And What to Do
about it.
WWW.CONNEC
TABILITY.CA
Narrate Everything
During day-to-day activities, narrate your
actions/routines. Start with singular words and
progress to sentences as your child's speech
evolves. EX. 1. shoes, 2. put shoes, 3.put on
shoes, 4, we put on shoes.
EX. 1. eat, 2. eat food, 3. we eat food. 4. we eat
rice.
 Ask Questions
Asking children short and simple questions supports their
contextual comphrension and sets up opportunity for two
way conversations. Some great questions structures to
start with are this or that and then you can progress to the
five W’s. Reading story books create opportunities for
questions and are a great way to expand your childs
vocabulary and understanding of sentence structure.

SURREY
PLACE
Questions To Ask
The Surrey Place
preschool speech and This or that- milk or water?
language program Who- who is the princess?
provides professional What- what is she wearing?
resources and Where- where is the tree?
support To help When- when do we take
preschool-aged baths?
children acquire Why- why is she sad?
stronger speech and
language
development The Hanen
outcomes and Centre-speech
intervention language
strategies. pathologists