Today I arrived at the home of one of my students who is on the autism spectrum. We enjoy playing games, playing pretend  and reading books for learning.

He took me right to a big cardboard box on the floor that was laid sideways with both ends open. He announced that it was a tunnel. I got out my Fisher Price little people and vehicles, let him chose a figure (Papa) while I took the Mama and we started our play and conversation. The goal was to have him engage in conversation using his Papa figure while I talked back with mine, moving him from what could be perseverative behavior or talking (in relation to the tunnel) to flexible language. Therefore I set up different play scenarios, one at a time, to encourage flexibility.

After a chat, he ran his car with Papa through the tunnel and I put out a slide for a playground. He turned Papa over on his tummy and started to count to 10 and we were playing hide and seek. I got so excited! When it was my turn to hunt for Papa, I modeled different places to look–”Is he under the slide?” “Is he behind the bike?”  Then I added a prop or two for his turn to see if he would generalize and use them for hiding places too. I continued to model, pull back and let him respond, add a prop or two and expand the play.

As we continue to play, I see progress in his ability to follow my models for play and occasionally add a novel action. These are little successes as my friend learns to play pretend.

What a jump, from first words at a year of age, to saying little sentences at two. Your toddler has a tall task ahead of him to absorb the world of language and learn how to make his wants and needs known through the spoken word. Parents can use  some simple strategies to encourage their tot’s talking, through his everyday experiences. As a speech-language pathologist, I often encounter well-meaning parents who are speaking for their child, robbing him of the opportunity to practice what he hears and use the words needed to begin verbal communication.

Typically toddlers at a year and a half  understand far more than they can say. It is in this latter half of their second year of life that they experience a “vocabulary explosion,” where they can learn and use several new words each week, culminating in combining two words for their first little sentences by two years of age. Words begin to take over for gestures, as children take turns in conversation and name objects, people and actions in their day.

I share these easy strategies with parents to encourage their toddler’s talking during this exciting time:

1. Follow the leader. Follow your child’s focus of attention and comment about what he is looking at or exploring in his environment. Give him the words to describe what he is interested in and looking at, “Yes, all the animals are riding in the wagon and the farmer is ready to start up the engine.” Use rich vocabulary as you describe these scenes so your child will learn new words like engine, or start up. Research has shown a strong correlation between the time that mothers of 12-18 month-olds shared their child’s focused interest and the size of their vocabularies later. It makes sense that children learn and internalize more vocabulary when we talk about what they are interested in and focused on at the moment.
2. Name the point. When your child points to what he wants, pause and see if he will say something. If he doesn’t have the word, you provide it for him, “Juice, you want some juice, you must be thirsty for juice.” Use the word in several short sentences so he can hear it emphasized in that context. In the
   
   
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