Talking - Riverton,UT

Teach her everything!! Repeat the words she is saying and keep saying them over and over... "Oh, you want the apple juice? I like apple juice. Do you like apple juice? You start to learn how to repeat the things she is saying in a sentence and just keep talking!

I always liked 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. My son and I played it all the time and he'd laugh and giggle when I'd tickle his knees and toes.
You can try to avoid teaching her 'No' for as long as you can, but somehow they always learn it, and they ALWAYS go through a stage when 'NO!' is all they'll say. When they are in that stage, it almost makes you regret they have to learn to talk at all, but they out grow it eventually.

Really the best thing you can do is to start helping her name the items in her environment. This is practical education for her. She's going to need to know all of these words in short order, so start with things like "chair" "bowl" "spoon" "floor" "dog" "daddy" etc.... If she can look at something solid and real and have you attach a word to it, and then practice that word with you every time she sees it, her vocabulary with be off to a great start. Some of the first words my kids learned were the words for the parts of their bodies. I felt this was important so they could tell me if something hurt or didn't feel good. They would spend hours on my lap going over these words. "Where's mommy's nose?" They would point to it and sometimes try to say it and so on. A couple of weeks and they were very proficient at speaking those words. My 2yo can name every part of his body, even distinguishing between belly and chest. Just stay away from, or don't stress about pronouns right now. Pronouns are a difficult concept and shouldn't be stressed until they are about 2-3 years old. (pronouns are words like "I" "me" "he" "she" "they" etc...)

Best of luck!
D. (SAH, homeschooling mom of two lively boys)

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Sorry to edit so quickly but I forgot to mention something. Don't talk to her in that baby talk/sing-songy voice. Speak to her in a normal voice and use simple, short words to describe everything around you. Keep up a running monologue describing everything going on in your and her day, but make sure that you slip in a few questions to her like "I think I'm going to make lunch, are you hungry?" If she doesn't answer just say "I bet you are! Mommy's sure hungry, I need something to eat!". The more you model speech for her, the better off she will be.

As a teacher and having taken a lot of child development courses you don't really" teach" her words, she will say word sounds and simple words on her own. Just encourage her to talk by acknowledging her and talking back to her interacting with her even when she babbles. You can clap and smile when she says things too, don't let the new word sounds and words she says go unnoticed. Be sure you are saying the real names of things to her when you do things with her in daily interation with her at home and when you are out and about. Do this for the next 2-3 yrs to help build her vocab.. Tell her and say the proper names of toys, family member names, food names, pet names, common household items, cooking tools, etc. This will encourage her to speak more and builds her language skills too. I did this with my daughter when she began to talk and until she was about 5 and she has an amazing vocab now. Realize your child may not say all words properly for a while, thats fine and very normal, just acknowledge and encourage. Their brains are like little sponges at this age, picking up sounds and new words each week. Its a exciting time when language skills start to emerge in your children. PS- Also be very aware that she will even pick up words by copying you and others she is around when she is just a little older so don't say words that you dont want her to copy :D

Instead of going off of a list of words, walk around the house with her and point out various objects and label them for her. Do this when you are out and about too, like at the park and the grocery store. If you do this, she will naturally start adding to her expressive vocabulary in no time at all. Just talk, talk, talk to her. Kids are like a sponge at this age. It's amazing what they can learn with hardly any effort on our part at all.

So glad to hear that your daughter is starting to talk. Carry on the good work, Momma.

Just talk to her. I would babble all day long at my daughter. I would point out everything and use simple sentences. We would sit and look at books and I would show her pictures and say the names. I also used the hybrid of baby talk, we would never mispronounce a word, but we would use things like puppy dog, kitty cat, birdy ect. I would also use the dreaded sing song voice to make her smile or get her attention. I know a lot of people frown on it, but my daughter spoke early and at 7 has a wonderful vocabulary and can speak well, so I didn't stunt her. You let the words and sentences fit the age, but don't talk down either as she gets older. Listen to what she says too, you will pick up her words and say them back to her. Singing is also a fun way to teach words. Good luck.

Just talk to her like an adult. Don't babytalk to her. Our daughter has been talking well and everyone can understand her since she was around 14 months old.

The key is to keep it short and simple. Don't use long drawn out sentences like "Do you want something to eat?" We say "Wanna Eat?" or "Wanna Drink?"

Using 2-3 word sentences while she was learning to talk and never using the baby words like binky, paci, ni-night, etc was what worked for us.

I hope this helps!
QuistMom

You'll be amazed at what they pick-up on and what they don't.

But, I wholeheartedly agree with not speaking to them as a baby. You'll have to alter your approach vs. talking to one of your friends, but they're much more perceptive than we know.

Our daughter had to have tubes for the second time a few months ago. She's quite vocal, but she's hard to understand at times. We often have to have her "show us" so we understand her pronunciation of a word. Yesterday, it was umbrella that had me stumped. I finally figured it out, but I had to try for a few minutes very diligently.

Our kids loved doing flash cards. We had some Baby Einstein animal ones that they both still love (we taught our daughter both the animals and how they moved - pretty entertaining), and a cheap set from Target with basic words on it. But, describing everything in the world around you is the easiest way for them to make the connection between words and the objects, colors, emotions, etc. they describe.

Good luck!

Anything that is in your everyday life is a great start. Enunciate clearly, and using sign language helps, too. First children tend to like labels for everything, food, toys, etc. After that, kids are more likely to focus on relationship terms. Have fun with it, and listen carefully. She'll have a lot of words that don't sound anything like what you'd expect, and she'll be thrilled if you get it. She'll know when she's not getting it right, so encouraging her with correct guesses is a lot of fun for both of you.

my kids always loved it when i would walk around the house with them and name things.

my oldest had speech delays and my youngest does too. when we give him milk we tell him milk. after they pick up milk we go to glass of milk. when he babbles if he says itty at we say yes that is a kitty cat. repeat what you think she is saying to reinforce to her it is right. if he says right there we repeat it to him.
if you repeat what he is trying to say his face lights up. if he gets something of mine I say no mamas. I keep it short and simple once he picks it up I add to it. I don't know if I did this instinctively cause my oldest had speech or not.
anytime he wants something tell him what he is asking for. one simple word to start with and add to later. when he signs more to us we say "do you want more cookies" or whatever more is asking for. when he brings us his tippy we say "are you thirsty" or "do you want a drink?" and while I am walking to the kitchen I keep repeating drink. he sometimes claps if I say what he wants. or keeps signing more. use all and any word don't limit yourself. like with mine being slow on speech isnt slow in the brain. their brain picks up more than their mouth can say and all of a sudden they just throw words at you out of the blue.

I agree with the moms who suggest just talking to her – about everything. Use simple sentences, enunciate clearly, avoid baby talk. You'll notice that she understands a great deal more than she's able to say.

When she gets to the stage of sitting still for them, read her books. Just a page or two at a time is probably all she'll be interested in at first. Children's books focus on appropriate vocabulary.

Some words are easy. Your daughter will be using those first. My youngest sister, my daughter, and my grandson all learned "hot" as their first official word, all of them connected to trying to touch hot cups of tea. We let my grandson touch a cup that was just a tiny bit too hot, while emphasizing the word. He made contact, jerked his hand away, and with big eyes and a tiny voice, exclaimed "hot!" while wiping his fingers on his shirt. It was a very popular word with him for awhile.

Teach her common, everyday words that you use around the house - door, kitchen, bowl etc. Body words - arm, elbow, knee etc. Shapes & colors. People words - girl, boy, baby etc. While you are out, teach other common words that you use in everyday 'talk' - car, tree, flower etc. Then you build from there... Have fun - it's fun to hear how they interpret what you are saying!

I agree with the posts just to talk to her. I was having some problems finding some books for my son with just simple pictures in them to help him. Most were too busy. I found some nice flash cards with big pictures showing emotions and common items at Mardels and also saw them at Beyond black board. That might help you.

Hi--
I agree with everyone else. You don't need to "teach" her anything. She will learn just by interacting with you in an every day way. Reading is also a good way to teach her. I used sign language with my oldest--my youngest just went straight to repeating anything we said to him. This is a natural process--you don't need to "do" anything to help her other then just talking to her.
J.

My suggestion would be feelings. Ex: mad, sad, happy, excited, anxious, etc. In my experience, the more words they know about feelings, the less temper tantrums. because they will know how to express their feelings through words rather than actions.

I don't think that you need to be worried about finding a list of the right words for her to know. The most important thing is for you to constantly be talking to her and pointing out what everything is in her everyday life. Read books and interact.

I don't know how old your little girl is but what I know from three kids and one on the way is that kids choose the words they begin to say based on necessity and what your family uses. I can't imagine there would be one list that would work for all families. I do know that if you spend LOTS of time just talking to her and explaining things to her, her vocabulary will increase quickly. Just let her explore and learn, she will love the time with you, I wouldn't make it a chore.

Good luck!