{"id":1,"date":"2018-03-07T23:46:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T23:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.0.1.28\/?p=1"},"modified":"2024-07-26T01:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T01:14:19","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/07\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach Your Child To Talk Like You Taught Him To Walk!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How did you teach your child to walk?&nbsp; You probably did a combination of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Encouraging him to pull up on the furniture and cruise<\/li>\n<li>Walking with him while holding his hand<\/li>\n<li>Standing a few feet away with your arms wide open, calling him towards you!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Does this sound familiar?&nbsp; What you really did was: &nbsp;set the environment, support when needed, and ENCOURAGE success.<\/p>\n<p>Did you ever roll your eyes at him, shake your head, and say, \u201ccome on baby.&nbsp; It\u2019s easy, JUST WALK!\u201d&nbsp; Or did you hold the object he wanted, look him right in the eye, and say, \u201cIf you want this you are going to need to walk here and get it.&nbsp; I\u2019m not giving it to you otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No!&nbsp; We instinctually know that we have to encourage our children to walk through warmth and support.&nbsp; Maybe you said, \u201cCome here if you want the milk!\u201d, but I bet you said it with a smile on your face and with a look that showed you believed he could do it.<\/p>\n<p>This is what we need to do with speech and language development.<\/p>\n<p>I have seen parents and therapists hold an item out of reach, look at the child with a bored look, and say, \u201cSay <em>milk\u201d. <\/em>When the child doesn\u2019t say it, the adult shakes her head and says again, &nbsp;\u201cNo!&nbsp; Say <em>milk.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you wouldn\u2019t do this for walking, don\u2019t do it for language development either.<\/p>\n<p>Kids will do more if they feel safe and supported.&nbsp; Your child knew that you would try to catch him if he fell.&nbsp; He trusted you enough to walk to you.&nbsp; We need to show our children that even if they cannot say something, they can trust us and they know that we will support them.&nbsp; For most children, you do not need to force them to walk.&nbsp; Similarly, we do not need to force children to speak.<\/p>\n<p>We do need to: set the environment, offer supports, and spotlight our encouragement.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Set the environment: put desired items out of reach, hide toys in boxes and bags, provide books and visuals, and keep distractions to a minimum.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Support: Model making requests. Don\u2019t be afraid to use supports such as pictures or sign language.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Encouragement: Encourage your child to make a request! With enthusiasm, \u2018realize\u2019 what it is your child wants and then ask them to say the name of the object.&nbsp; Encourage him for as long as you would encourage a kid to walk.&nbsp; Typically, I encourage 2-4 times.&nbsp; Then let him know that you are still proud of him for trying, and give him the object.&nbsp; Build the trust between you and your child, so that he knows that you are there to help him.&nbsp; Let him know you are looking forward to practicing again next time. &nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How did you teach your child to walk?&nbsp; You probably did a combination of: Encouraging him to pull up on the furniture and cruise Walking with him while holding his hand Standing a few feet away with your arms wide open, calling him towards you! Does this sound familiar?&nbsp; What you really did was: &nbsp;set [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3189,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/3189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenspeechtherapy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}