Teach Me to Talk: Building Verbal Imitation in ToddlersTeach Me to Talk - The Therapy Manual
Print This Post Print This Post
April 15, 2008 | Laura | Comments 0
Print This Post Print This Post

Using “Shortened Speech” with Toddlers in Daycare

Last week I received an e-mail from a reader and would like to share her question and my response.

“…….. I work at a child care center… I am hoping you can help me or give me some direction on finding tips for talking with toddlers.  I am trying to help the teachers in the toddler room realize how they are talking with the toddlers.  They often use very shortened speech.  For example, the will say “Put coat on” or “Johnny do” or “Puzzle goes here.”  I am trying to help them understand the importance of modeling “regular” language and to talk to the children like they would talk to an adult.  ”Please put on your coat”.  Johnny, wash your hands please.”  etc.  Do you have any recommendations or advice?”

My response:

Sorry it’s taken me a few days to reply to your e-mail, but I have been giving it some thought so I wouldn’t just give you my knee jerk reaction.  Even after several days of mulling this over, I am afraid that I can’t come up with advice you’re going to like.  I totally agree with the teachers at your daycare who are using shortened speech to talk to their toddlers.  Actually I recommend reducing the complexity of what we say to the parents of children with language delays because it’s the VERY BEST way to ensure that toddlers begin to imitate words and phrases in daily routines.  While it’s true that young children need to hear models of adult speech to improve their language comprehension skills and neurologically “map” into their brains what adult conversations sound like, they also need lots of “real life” examples of speech that they can imitate and use during events of the day.There are probably speech-language pathologists or early childhood educators out there who will say that you should never simplify your speech so that children get the “correct” adult model, but I am not one of them.  I believe that we do need to purposefully use single words and short phrases so that toddlers actually have half a chance of saying and using the words we model for them. I suspect that’s what the teachers in your toddler room are trying to accomplish.

I am also making the assumption the children in the toddler room are between 1 and 2.  Unless the language skills of every child in the class are moving along beautifully, they have little to no chance of imitating a 4-5 word sentence as in the examples you gave in your e-mail.  However, many of them probably can imitate a 2 to 3 word phrase that they hear routinely everyday.  If it is in fact an older toddler class, say 2 to 3 years olds, then a 4 or 5 word sentence would be very appropriate.

I think that most babies and toddlers hear TONS of “regular” adult language, as you called it, everyday.  Again, let me reiterate that toddlers do need to hear adult-speech to improve comprehension skills in conversation.  But truth be told, I actually applaud teachers of babies and toddlers who shoot for the “toddler” version at least some of the time.

Let me also add that I am very impressed that you are taking the time to think about the language skills of the children in your daycare.  They are so lucky to have such a thoughtful, caring staff member who would take the time to track down information to share with colleagues.  I’m sorry I’m coming down on the other side of the issue, but I have to answer your question from my perspective as someone who deals with language-delayed children day in and day out.

Thanks for taking the time to e-mail me. Best of luck to you!  Laura

Entry Information

Filed Under: Expressive

Tags: • •

About the Author:

Post a Response

Previous Post
Next Post