To read our full article, check out: Why I tell parents to point at things to help late talkers to speak
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Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.
How do babies and toddlers choose their first words?
As a speech pathologist, I’m probably a bit biased. But watching a typical child’s language and speech sound systems blossom is – truly – a wonder to behold.
When magic happens: first words
Language and speech sounds are not the same thing. Babies and toddlers can babble meaninglessly. They can also communicate specific messages in detail without speech, e.g. with gestures. But speech and language come together when kids begin to connect their speech sounds with words they want to say.
For most parents and other carers, this is a pretty special time. I still remember the golden moment when my first child said “dadda” (/daedə/) – and seemed to mean me!
Apart from the memories, first (and later) words matter because vocabulary size is a good indicator of overall language development. Larger vocabulary sizes also correlate with greater phonological (speech sound) skills. Early symptoms of developmental language disorders, include late talking (Hagan et al., 2008). In particular, a lack of word combinations at 24 months is a significant predictor of language impairment (Rudolph & Leonard, 2016).
So how do language and speech come together to produce first words?
Words
Most young children say their first word between the ages of 12 and 18 months. About 6 months after a child says her first word, she can usually say around 50 words; and by 4 years of age, she can typically say around 2,500-3000 words (Fenson et al., 2007; Stoel-Gammon, 2011). These are of course averages: there is huge individual variation in vocabulary sizes for 1 year olds and toddlers (Fenson et al., 2000).
Speech sounds
Kids practice making speech sounds with babble. By 12 months of age, many English-speaking kids can say the following sounds at the start of babbled syllables and/or words:
- some sounds made by pressing the lips together (e.g. /b/ and /m/). These are called bilabial sounds;
- some sounds made with the tongue up on the “alveolar ridge” behind the top teeth (e.g. /d/ and /n/). These are called alveolar sounds;
- some sounds made at the back of the mouth (e.g. /g/ and /h/). These are called “velar” and “glottal sounds”; and
- a range of vowels (Robb & Bleile, 1994).
Most utterances at this age (words and non-words) are only one syllable long or repeated syllables (Bauman-Waengler, 2000); and many toddlers leave the last consonant off words ending in consonants (“final consonant deletion”) (Davis et al., 2017). Mistakes are common: only about 70% of a typically developing 2-year-olds’ consonants are correct (Stoel-Gannon, 1987).
Fast forward a bit. By 4 years of age, most typically developing English-speaking kids are generally intelligible to unfamiliar adults, and can say:
- all vowels;
- almost all consonants at the start and end of words (common exceptions include /s/, /r/, “th” as in thin, and “th” as in “this”);
- lots of “clusters” of consonants (e.g. /tw, kw, sp, st, bl/ etc.); and
- one, two and three syllable words (e.g. Smit el al., 1990; Shriberg, 1993).
As with language, there is a high degree of variation in the number of speech sounds spoken by individuals, as well as the order in which speech sounds are acquired (see here for more detail).
So how do babies and toddlers choose their first words?
We don’t know!
There are scores of theories, many with cartoonishly-long academic names. But, broadly, most theories describe one of two main ideas:
- Children choose words to say based on the sounds and syllables structures they are capable of saying. This explains why so many kids start with one- or two-syllable words starting with bilabial or alveolar speech sounds, like “mama”, “baby”, “ball” and (yes) “dadda”. We’ll call this the “speech sound dominance theory”.
- Children choose words to say based on – um – the words they want to say! For example, a child might attempt “cookie” even though she can’t say /k/ or two-syllable words, because it describes something she really wants. Or she might say “no” first for the simple reason that many toddlers love to communicate rejection with a (screamed) “no” . We’ll call this the “word dominance theory”.
Having read some of the research going back to the ground-breaking work of Leonard in the early 1980s, I favour the speech sound dominance theory. Clinically, it helps me to explain to parents why:
- so many kids show a preference for words starting with bilabial and alveolar speech sounds across many languages;
- so many first words are simple consonant-vowel and consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel combinations (e.g. “ma”, “ba”, “mama”, “dadda”);
- some late-talkers respond well to treatment that focuses on words starting with sounds they can say (so-called “phonological flooding”); and
- final consonant deletion is so common with toddlers’ speech.
But, as with many things speech science-related, it pays to keep an open mind.
New research
On first reading, a small, recent US study of six children (aged 8 months to 2 years, 11 months) appears to lend further support to the speech sound dominance theory. But, on a closer reading, it suggests that the answer is not clear cut. (See citation below.)
Professor Barbara Davis and colleagues of the University of Texas at Austin found that, overall, the kids favoured words that started with a sound they could say. For kids with small vocabularies, there was some evidence for the word dominance theory in sounds at the ends of words. However, this finding was complicated by the tendency of young children to leave out final consonants: together, the kids in the study left out 63% of the final consonants in target words ending with a consonant!
Clinical bottom line
I’m not changing my mind for now: I still favour the speech sound dominance theory from a clinical perspective. But, having read Davis’ research, I now appreciate that the interaction between language and speech sounds is complex and may go both ways when it comes to first words. As the researchers note, there is plenty of exciting research still to do on this important topic!
Related articles:
- Late talkers: how I choose which words to work on first
- Why I tell parents to point at things to help late talkers to speak
- FAQ: What’s the difference between speech and language?
- “He was such a good baby. Never made a sound!” Late babbling as a red flag for potential speech-language delays
- FAQ: In what order and at what age should my child have learned his/her speech sound consonants?
- FAQ: 10 common speech error patterns seen in children of 3-5 years of age – and when you should be concerned
Principal source:
Davis, B., van der Feest, S., & Yi, H. (2017). Speech sound characteristics of early words: influence of phonological functions across vocabulary development. Journal of Child Language, 2017. Published online: 4 December 2017.
Image: https://tinyurl.com/ydg2sooc
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).
Why I tell parents to point at things to help late talkers to speak
Most kids gesture before they talk. For example, they:
- point at things they want parents to look at;
- shake their heads to say “no”; and
- tilt their hands to their mouth to tell us they want a drink.
When assessing potential late talkers, speech pathologists look at the child’s gestures because they can signal imminent changes in spoken language. Gesture use is a good predictor of later language development – particularly later vocabulary development – and can help identify children at risk of longer term language delays.
Why kids’ gestures are so important to language development
Typically developing 14-16 month olds use more gestures than words in their communication. After kids start saying their first words, they continue to use gesture, combining words and gestures:
- first, they point at things and name them (e.g. they might say “bear” while pointing at a teddy bear). These are called complementary gestures; and
- later, they learn to point at things and add additional information with their words (e.g. they might point at a book and say “read”). These are called supplementary gestures because, with the word, they convey two ideas.
The age at which children start using supplementary gestures predicts the age at which they will start combining words (e.g. Iverson, et al., 2005).
Even after kids start combining words, they continue to use gestures with their speech to communicate sentence-like meanings. For example, a child might use a gesture for “push” while saying “I play pram” – communicating the equivalent of the more complex sentence “I am playing with the pram by pushing it”.
So, in short, gesture happens before speech, develops with speech, and predicts future changes in speech. Late talkers who don’t gesture much are at a higher risk of longer-term language delays than late talkers who gesture a lot.
Why parents’ gestures are so important to language development
Typically developing 12 month olds can easily follow an adult’s pointing gesture to a target object (e.g. a toy) (e.g. Butterworth, & Grover, 1988). Most parents gesture when they talk to their young children. Compared to the way they normally gesture in adult conversation, parents modify their use of gestures with young children. For example, parents use lots of complementary gestures (like the bear/bear example above). They also use higher rates of simple gestures (e.g. points). So it seems most parents use a kind of “gesture motherese” with their young children, just as they often subconsciously adapt their spoken language when talking to their children – so called motherese.
Research published over the last two decades tells us that:
- parent gestures (like pointing) and gesture combinations (complementary and supplementary gestures) might help children to understand and acquire new words and sentences (Kelly, 2001); and
- parents who gesture more tend to have children who gesture more themselves, compared to children of parents who gesture less (e.g. Namy et al., 2000).
Of most interest clinically, it turns out that parent gestures – particularly pointing – not only promote gesture production in children, but can also predict children’s subsequent vocabulary development (e.g. Pan et al. 2005).
Clinical bottom line
Parents and other adults working with a late talker can influence the child’s language development positively by gesturing more often with simple gestures. For example, pointing at things as you name them can help children who are not talking at all to understand and say their first words. Similarly, pointing at things and adding information about them (e.g. pointing at a dog and saying “sitting”) can help children who are speaking in single words to start combining words.
My practical tip: when working with a late talker who is not speaking or speaking only in single words, consciously increase your use of simple gestures – especially pointing – to help the child to learn new concepts and language skills.
Principal source: Ozcaliskan, S., & Dimitrova, N. (2013). How Gesture Input Provides a Helping Hand to Language Development. Seminars in Speech & Language, 34(4), 227-235.
Image: http://bit.ly/1i73YVl
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).
Late talkers: how I choose which words to work on first
Choosing words to teach* late talkers is hard – for both parents and speech pathologists! But there’s some great research out there to guide decision-making, if you know where to look.
As a Hanen-certified speech pathologist, I’ve just completed a very practical seminar on word choice for late talkers presented by Cindy Earle, the Program Director for Hanen’s Target Word program.
For the benefit of parents and others caring for late-talking children, I thought I’d share my key takeaways:
1. What do we mean by a “late talker”?
The research definition of a “late talker” is a child aged between 18 and 30 months who:
- says fewer than 50 words; and/or
- isn’t combining words; and
- doesn’t have delays in any other area of development, e.g. receptive language disorders, autism spectrum disorder or motor delays.
Hanen’s clinical definition is much the same, but includes children who have fewer than 100 words. I prefer this definition because it captures more children who might be at risk and who might benefit from early intervention.
2. Why does late-talking matter? Should we be concerned about it?
To answer the second question first: yes.
We know that roughly half of late talkers “catch up” to their peers by the time they go to school. But, unfortunately, we don’t yet know which ones! For the “other half”, the late onset of language is a good predictor of long-term language problems – particularly with syntax, vocabulary, and verbal memory (Rice, 2008; Rescorla, 2009).
3. Known risk Factors
We discuss known red flags for language delays here.
4. Predictors of change/improvement
This was my first big takeaway from Cindy’s talk. Drawing on studies by Olswang and colleagues (1998) and Wetherby (2000), Earle identified the following factors as “predictors of change” for late talkers’ language development:
- quietness/noisiness;
- consonant repertoire (i.e. how many consonants the child can say);
- pretend play skills;
- comprehension;
- gestures;
- imitation;
- the kinds of words the child uses (if any);
- social skills; and
- time.
5. Getting specific about language goals for late talkers
“Talking” is of course the main goal for parents and carers of late talkers. But teaching children random words without a plan or goal is not the way to do it. Knowing about the above “predictors of change” allows us to get more specific about what might help the child get there ASAP, based on where they are at at the time of assessment:
- noisiness, e.g. the child will vocalise with each turn;
- imitation, e.g. the child will copy single words;
- single words, e.g. the child will use single words spontaneously; or
- combinations e.g. the child will combine words.
6. So, here’s what I think about when choosing words for a late talker
At the outset of therapy, I like to discuss and agree 10-15 target words with the families of late talkers I work with. To come up with the list, we consider the following six factors:
(a) Does the child understand the word?
There’s no point trying to teach a child to say a word he or she doesn’t understand.
(b) Does the word start with a sound the child can say?
The technical term for this is “in phonology“. We know that children are more likely to experiment with words that start with a sound in their existing repertoire of speech sounds. That’s why getting a speech sound sample is so important when we assess late talking children, even if they are only babbling and not saying any ‘true words’.
(c) Is the word motivating for the child to say (not just understand)
Some kids are very interested in a favourite bedtime toy, pet, TV character, etc. To maximise motivation for talking, I always try to include words that refer to the child’s “favourite things in the world” – even – eek! – if it involves the motion picture Frozen. (Let It Go, David!)
(d) Can we use gestures to supplement the word?
Gesture science can get a bit technical and jargon-laden: I plan to tackle this important topic in a future blog post (or two!). But, for the purposes of this article, we know that certain gesture-speech combinations help some late talkers to combine words (McEachern & Haynes, 2004).
If we’re trying to help a late talker combine words, teaching him/her gestures that supplement (rather than just echo) his/her words can help. For example, teaching a child to point at things and to say applicable words like “go” or “fast” or “big”, can provide children with a bridge to developing multi-word utterances (e.g. “car go”, “fast dog”, “big tree”).
(e) Verbs, verbs, verbs
We’ve covered this point before. But it bears repeating:
In English, you need at least one verb (action word) to make a complete sentence (e.g. “go” or “fish swim”). So teaching children the names of things and people (e.g. “mama”, “car”) and positions (e.g. “up”) is not enough. If we want to help late talkers combine words into sentences, we MUST include verbs.
For this reason, I always choose at least four “all purpose” verbs in my initial word list for late talkers: e.g. go, do, play, make, come, get. The fancy name for this practice is “verb-focused intervention” (e.g. Hadley & Olsen, 2005).
(f) Words that occur throughout the day
Just like with verbs, we don’t want to spend our time on words that won’t come up a lot during the day. One trick is to look for things that the child loves to do a lot of during the day. This varies from child to child. Observe the child doing it, then come up with words that will give you plenty of time to use them several times a day.
Bottom line
Correct word choice is very important when helping a late talker. Early intervention is the best strategy.
If you’re the parent or carer of a late talker – or potential late talker – we recommend you get in touch with a certified practising speech pathologist for a chat and, if warranted, to organise a language assessment.
Related articles:
- Late talkers: kick-start language with these verbs
- Why I tell parents to point at things to help late talkers to speak
- “He was such a good baby. Never made a sound!” Late babbling as a red flag for potential speech-language delays
- Power in knowledge: child language risk factors
- Are language development and motor development related?
- 6 principles we follow when assessing toddlers for language delays and disorders
- Helping toddlers with their first words – mix it up and make them useful
Key source: Earle. C. (2015). Choosing Initial Vocabulary Targets for Children who are Late Talkers. A Hanen e-Seminar. Hanen Centre. (Attended by the writer on 13-17 July 2015.)
* For you fellow Chomsky/Pinker fans out there, please note that I’m using the word “teach” loosely here – I could have said “naturalistic indirect language stimulation based on principles of interactive communication” to make the point that we don’t actually teach language to children: we just help them help themselves. But life’s too short!
Image: http://bit.ly/1JsaZWB
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).
FAQ: which action words should I teach my toddler, and how?
2016 research update alert: for more up-to-date information, click here.
When kids get to around two, we expect them to start combining words into short phrases and sentences.
Problem is, many of us parents tend to spend most of our time teaching our toddlers the names of objects. You can’t make a sentence out of objects only. Consider:
“Bread fish Australia dog concrete Peter keys democracy”. It sounds like a doctoral thesis on post-modernism. In other words, meaningless.
To make a sentence you need at least a noun (e.g. fish) and an action word or verb (e.g. swimming). Otherwise, how is your child going to wake up one day, point to your fish tank, and say his or her first glorious sentence?
“Fish swim!”
Action words are tricker to teach than the names of objects because:
- unlike objects, you can’t easily see them – you have to infer “swimming” from what’s happening (the fish moving through the water in the tank), rather than simply what’s there (the fish);
- when they happen, it’s usually only for a short time (especially for goldfish that have had the misfortune of being my pet); and
- they are used to code relatively complex, sometimes abstract, ideas, e.g. of space, time, and causality.
So which action words are the most useful to teach your toddler?
Short answer: simple, “all purpose” action words that can be used by your toddler in lots of situations and places (we wouldn’t recommend starting with “prevaricate” or “bedazzle”, for example). Here’s the shortlist list I usually start with, adapted from the famous* Bristol Language studies:
come
do
get
got/have
look
make
need
open
play
put
that’s a…
want
As leading Australian speech pathologist Mellanie Sherwood points out, a great way to teach your toddler verbs is when they are playing with their favourite toys. Just make sure you teach the verb while you are acting it out or otherwise demonstrating the action – and while your child is watching you do it – so he or she can figure out what you’re talking about.
Not before or after you’ve done it.
* Famous, mainly, to speech pathologists with an interest in early language development.
Key source: Wells, G. (1985). Language Development in the Preschool Years. Cambridge Press, London.
Related articles:
- Late-talkers: the importance of verbs to kick-start language development (2016 research update)
- Helping toddlers with their first words
- Late talkers: how I choose which words to work on first
- Why I tell parents to point at things to help late talkers to speak
- “He was such a good baby. Never made a sound!” Late babbling as a red flag for potential speech-language delays
- Power in knowledge: child language risk factors
- Are language development and motor development related?
- 6 principles we follow when assessing toddlers for language delays and disorders
Image: http://tinyurl.com/ns8fsnt
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).
Speech pathology homework doesn’t have to be boring
Atop a foothill of Mt Warrenheip, a mere 8km from my childhood home in Ballarat, sits Kryal Castle. Behold its magnificence!
Built in the 1970s by one Keith Ryall, the castle features a moat, a maze, stocks, an armory, mock-hangings, performing lions, jousting knights, juggling jesters and – best of all for ten year old me – a gruesome Wax Torture museum. Of all the many, kitschy and odd tourist attractions in Australia, Kryal Castle is by far the best and – outside of Ballarat and her surrounds – one of the least well-known.
I still remember the Winter’s day when Dad took us out to the Castle. In hindsight, the trip was designed to give Mum a day off. But what I remember most is how I lost my voice from talking (and shouting) so much – describing all I could see from the parapet, re-telling the jesters’ jokes, giving detailed instructions to my sister about where the bathroom was (sending her, screaming, via the Wax museum), plotting my course through the maze with a map, and negotiating with Dad about the purchase of bag upon bag of hot chips. In short, it was the perfect language work out!
When I think about young kids (and their parents) trudging guiltily to speech pathology sessions carting tatty scrapbooks stuffed with half-completed worksheets, I sometimes wonder why we make it so hard – and boring. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for worksheets. Some children and families love them. They can be an efficient way of getting in lots of repetitions in a short time.
But the purpose of speech pathology is not to kill trees or to line the pockets of worksheet presses. It’s to improve communication skills. So why not practice those skills with actual people out in the real world?
If you’re working on early concepts, head out one morning to a zoo or farm and marvel at the big elephant or cow, the small lizard or chick, the tall giraffe or farmer, the short meercat or pony foal, the green parrot, the white lion, the furry koala, the fast dog or the noisy goat. Talk about how you got out of the house – what you did first, second, next and last. What you did before you brushed your teeth, or after you’d put the cat out.
If you’re practicing prepositions, open your front door, walk across the road, open the gate, shut it behind you, walk into the playground, jump on and off the balancing beam, swing forwards and backwards, climb up the ladder, slide down the slide, and then do it all again.
If you’re practising plurals, go to the supermarket and pick up cans of tomatoes, bunches of bananas, bags of rice, mangoes, apples and oranges. Point at pictures of cakes and chips and bottles of coke and other “sometimes food and drink”.
If irregular verbs are the name of the game, or if you’re working on narratives and recounts, rug up in front of the fire or heater and tell each other stories about your family: the time you fell off your chair at school, sleeping, and broke your arm in two places. Or the day you caught the cricket ball at the Second Test after it flew high through the air. How Dad saw Bon Jovi live at the Hordern. How Granddad ran a marathon, taught himself to drive in a paddock and fought in the War. How Grandma knew a man who blew glass into animal shapes in Venice and bought 20 butterflies back for her friends.
Take advantage of the fact you live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Catch trains and buses and ferries. Go to the beach, the park, the museum, the art gallery, the movies, the Rennaisance fair, up the coast, down the old highway, out of town and interstate.
And, as you do all of these things as a family, describe what you see to your kids like you’re calling the Melbourne Cup. Fill your family days, your outings, your roadtrips and quiet nights in with language. And encourage your kids to do the same.
Related articles:
- Defrazzle and reconnect: tips for families to talk to each other to stimulate language development
- Defrazzling update: practising what we preach
- Defrazzling: Family Project Time: The Local Council Pick-Up
- Defrazzle: Convene on the Green
- Defrazzle: Stuck in a rut? Do something random!
Image: http://tinyurl.com/lajxo8x
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).