Sometime around 18 months (I like to think of it as a window between 15 and 20 months) most toddlers go through a language burst. Up to this point a child may have somewhere around 20-50 words. These words are usually concrete nouns in the child’s everyday environment. They use these words with a variety of intention. That is they may be requesting an object, pointing out an object, or showing you the features of an object. During this language burst these toddlers have enough variety in their language that they can truly start to combine words in to phrases and comment more on the world around them.
A quick note: if you have concerns for your child’s speech development at this point (child isn’t quickly adding words, child doesn’t seem to have consistent words, your child had words but have since lost them, your child won’t follow directions) talk to your pediatrician and seek out a Speech-Language Pathologist. It’s always better to ask questions than to “wait and see”.
Okay, back to the 18 month language burst. If your child is in to this language burst you’ll recognize them quickly adding words to their lexicon, following directions of increased complexity, talking in more settings and with less prompting, and rehearsing more phrases. There are things you can do to support them at this time.
Use full and complete sentences. Avoid talking in “baby talk”.
Ask your child questions and give them time to respond. See previous blog post about wait time.
Don’t talk for your child. It’s not the end of the world if your child doesn’t answer grandma or grandpa’s question the first time they ask. Or the grocery store cashier, or the pediatrician, etc. etc. etc. Let your child speak for his or herself.
Talk through your own actions. This is true for little babies too. Talking through things as you do them pairs the visual with the audio and will help the syntactic bootstrapping required to develop an understanding of words, especially verbs.
Read with your child. This is always a great suggestion :)
Give choices. Ask your child what they want to eat, or play with. Initially present the options without the options in view. And then if your child has difficulty choosing verbally allow your child to see the options and gesture.
Use cloze sentences, when reading or speaking a familiar phrase try leaving off the last word. See if your child can fill the word in. You’ll be surprised at how effective this strategy is. We use it ALL THE TIME in therapy.
Support your child in learning and reciting nursery rhymes and songs.
Change up the setting. Have you ever taken your child on a trip and come home to realize they are totally different? Children at this age are especially sensitive to this. Changing the environment changes the expectations and often leads to a true increase in language abilities. This can be large scale (think family vacation) to small scale (attending a story time at the library).
This is a really exciting time in childhood development. If you ever have a question about your child’s development reach out!