Treating speech delay in toddlers can seem daunting if you’re not a trained Speech Pathologist. However, there are simple exercises that you can do yourself at home to help your toddler’s speech development. Here are 10 Speech Delay treatment exercises for toddlers:
1. Describing objects – Go through the room and describe different objects with your child. Ask them questions about what they see and encourage them to answer using words of their own.
2. Drawing pictures – Allow your toddler to draw a picture or shape while describing where each line goes or what color they’re drawing with. This encourages creative thinking and communication skills as they explain their artwork verbally.
3. Making music – Make music together by singing songs or playing instruments. This helps to develop rhythm and teaches them how to use words in a fun and entertaining way.
4. Speech Blocking – Speech blocking is an exercise where the adult speaks part of a sentence, then the child repeats it back in their own words. Speak slowly and clearly, using simple sentences with only one or two words at a time. For example: “I see…?”
5. Storytelling – Creating stories together helps to improve language skills as well as train memory, focus, imagination and overall communication abilities.
6. Speech Imitation – Ask your child to imitate what you are saying by repeating simple phrases such as “Mama says”. This can help build their vocal muscles and confidence in speaking.
7. Speech Cards – Create and play speech cards with your toddler. Speech cards are pictures, drawings or words on one side of a card and the associated sound on the other side. This exercise helps to build word recognition while connecting sounds with symbols.
8. Sound Games – Make up games that involve making a variety of different sounds such as animal noises or car engine revving. This helps them to recognize different sounds and can be great fun for both you and your child!
9. Speech Bubbles – Use speech bubbles to encourage your toddler to talk about their drawing or describe what an object is doing in a picture book. Ask questions such as “What do you think is happening here?” to encourage them to think critically and express themselves in words.
10. Speech Exercises – Speech exercises such as repeating tongue twisters, practicing animal sounds or rhyming can help your toddler learn different pronunciations and syllables. This will help them form complete sentences in the future.
By doing these 10 Speech Delay treatment exercises with your toddler at home, you’ll be helping them on their journey to becoming a confident speaker!
