Welcome back to the blog post series of the Whats and Hows. In this post I will focus on expressive language (what we say).
I will discuss communicative milestones for expressive language in relation to English and give you some ideas of how to stimulate your child’s language use. Remember if you are raising a bilingual child who also speaks English then he/she will differ from these norms. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me about your child’s language development.
As mentioned previously a child has two types of vocabularies – receptive (words understood) and expressive (spoken words). This section focuses on the spoken vocabulary. The following is a list of the approximate amount of spoken words a child has according to their age.
Children learn and use nouns primarily at first. Nouns are easy to teach since they have an object that can be attached to the label given. However, it is important to remember to model a variety of words (nouns, actions, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, etc.) so that your child gets a complete model of language.
The following is a list of nouns/verbs typically heard in a child’s early developing vocabulary. I am sure most of you already use these words repeatedly in your daily routine and in play as this list consists of the most frequent words spoken in early childhood development. Remember your child needs to hear the same words repeated several times before understanding them and attempting to use them. This list provides you with a guideline of the language to model for your child and to have them attempt imitating.
As you can see from the list of nouns, there are some categories that emerge early on. Toddlers should use words for body parts, foods they eat routinely, clothing, toys, objects they use, animals, etc. Early vocabulary is very basic, localized to their environment and daily routine. Similarly emerging early verbs consist of actions that the child does or sees done on a daily basis (e.g. eat, drink, gimme, open, put). Then their vocabulary keeps expanding and eventually the child hits what we call the language burst or explosion between 18 and 24 months, which is why we see such an increase in the amount of vocabulary spoken. There is also another burst later on close to 3 years old. That is why your child’s first years are so critical and there is so much you can do to stimulate language development.
Here are a few examples of how to expand your child’s spoken vocabulary in daily routine and play. You can always model these activities for younger children 6m+ or if your child is not yet speaking. However, these examples will demonstrate how to help an already speaking child (12m+) to try and imitate your language.
Bathtub vocabulary
Nouns for body parts (face, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, head, hair, arms, legs, hands, fingers, toes, back, chest, elbows, knees, belly, neck), nouns for clothing (shirt, socks, pants, skirt, dress, underwear), nouns for things used during bath time (bathtub/tub, water, soap, shampoo, bubbles, rubber duckie, boat, towel), adjectives (wet, dry, hot, cold, dirty, clean), verbs (turn on/off (water), fill/empty (tub), pour (soap bubbles), open, close, put, lift, sit, stand, gimme, want, need, wash, clean, wipe, get (in/out), rub, blow, take)
Let your child take the lead and ask him/her what to do to get ready for the bath, help them along the way. If they bring you to the bathtub first then say “You’re right we need a bath tub.” Then ask “What should we do next?” – help and encourage your child to say one of the following “water”, “turn on”, “open”, “turn on water”, “open water”, “fill tub”, or “fill tub with water”, depending on your child’s level and ability.
Reward any attempt they make to imitate what you said.
Then each step of the way have them try to tell you what to do and model what they could say. For instance, next step – take clothes off. You can have your child say “take _ off” or “_ off” for each piece of clothing (e.g. take shirt off, shirt off). Then get in the tub. Talk about what is in the tub, what your poured inside. Then time to get clean.
As you wash each body part you can make a game out of it and ask your child what to wash next – “clean/wash ears/neck/arms.” At the end you can ask them what to do to see if they can express that they need to get out of the tub and dry using a towel.
Talk about what you are doing. For instance, at the end of the bath you can say “I’m pulling out the stopper, pull out stopper, help me pull, pull” – see if your child attempts to say “pull” as you repeat it – stop pulling and look at your child and wait for them to say something such as pull or an approximation and keep pulling. Then you can say “All done, the bath tub is empty, uh oh you are wet, we need a”, pause and see if your child can attempt to say towel. Then say towel if they haven’t. Then bring the towel and show them it and ask “Do you want a towel?” See if your child responds then have them try and ask for it (e.g. “gimme towel”) then say “Okay, here you go time to dry” and as you dry your child or they dry themselves keep repeating “dry, dry, dry” then pause and see if they attempt to say “dry”. Then finish by saying “Yay all clean and dry!” and go on to your next activity – I assume most likely bed time so you could say “Time to get ready for bed.”
Breakfast vocabulary
Nouns for food and drinks (apple, banana, cereal, milk, juice, yogurt, bread, eggs, pancakes, bacon), target nouns of objects used in kitchen (chair, table, plate, bowl, fork, spoon, cup, straw, fridge), adjectives (hot, cold, crunchy, soft, sweet, salty – colors (red apple, yellow banana), sizes (big spoon, little spoon), shapes (round apple)), verbs (sit, gimme, want, need, get, put, pour, cut, drink, eat, bite, lick, cook, heat, boil, stir, mix, blow, take, clean, wipe, open, close, wash).
Choose a morning when convenient to have your little one help you prepare for breakfast. Tell them that you need them to be your helper that morning. Start by deciding what it is you will have for breakfast and model the language. For example if making eggs you can ask “What do we need to make eggs?” and see what your child says then help them say “eggs, a pan, spatula, butter.” You can then talk about the step of making the eggs and say “first we must crack open the eggs”, each time you crack an egg say “crack egg” and see if your child imitates you. You can also pause before you crack the next egg and look at your child and wait for some vocalization for “crack” or “egg” and praise them “Yes! Crack the egg open.”
Whatever you make/prepare, you and your child can look around the kitchen and find the items you need. As you model the language see if they repeat what you say, you can also pause as if you forgot and say “What did we need? Hmm” and see if your child recalls the item if not then you can say “Oh right, I wanted an apple. Apple.”
You can have your child set the table or sit them at the table and have them request what they need to eat – “Gimme/I want/I need a plate, spoon, cup, milk.” If they don’t know what to request then help them. You can turn it into a fun game as if things disappeared – “Uh oh, where is your plate? Hmm, where did your plate go? You need a plate to eat. What do you need/want?” – you child should respond “plate” or something that sounds like the word. Then you would want to model the appropriate request – “yes, gimme plate/I want plate” and wait for your child to try and say “Gimme/I want” or use appropriate gestures.
An important take away note is that you always want to be talking with your child throughout the day naturally and model appropriate language forms for their levels. Many times we want to get our child to talk by saying “say this or say that” and many times it doesn’t work. We cannot force children to talk. Many times it also adds a lot of pressure. I suggest modeling, creating opportunities where your child has to communicate (verbally or nonverbally) and pausing/waiting. Placing pauses appropriately in conversation allows the child a turn to speak. Just like in a conversation when the speaker pauses it’s the listener’s cue that they can talk or add to the conversation.
When modeling I like to usually advise parents to try to repeat the model 3 times for imitation. If no attempt is made by the third time, then do the action or give the object along with the verbal model and/or gesture. For instance, if the child needs you to open a box to get a desired toy, I would look at the child, hold the box and say “open” and wait a few seconds, to see if they attempt to say anything. I would do that one more time. Then on my third time I would say “open” and open the box right away and give it to the child. That way they heard my model three times, and on the last model got what they desired.
Children learn through multiple repetitions. Therefore, do not discourage yourself if they are not imitating right away, it may take several attempts before they try. The main point is to make communication necessary but not frustrating. Communicating should always be rewarding.
For more examples of how to target expressive vocabulary in play click the following links to read my posts on toys and play tips for great activities to do with your children.
Toys and Play Tips – Stimulating language and speech (Part 1)
Toys and Play Tips – Stimulating language and speech (Part 2)
Toys and Play Tips – Stimulating language and speech (Part 3)
A lot of times when we model simple language we tend to do so in a telegraphic way such as “car go in, put cat in, baby cry” so as to make the main vocabulary stand out. However, research shows that it is better to give children full complete grammatical models of language because children will always attempt to say the most that they possibly can. Therefore, we want them to not only learn the vocabulary but how to put words together, correctly, in sentences.
Now this doesn’t mean you need to talk in very long convoluted sentences. It is still preferable to simplify your language for younger infants and toddlers and as they grow you can continue to expand upon your model. The difference is, instead of saying “cow eat”, you should say “the cow is eating” as your correct model. While playing with the farm, you can point to the cow and say “cow” then take it and pretend it is eating and say “the cow is eating.” That way you give the model for the noun twice in two different ways and the complete correct grammatical form for the verb.
The following is a list of the development of grammatical forms according to age. This list can help you track what type of grammar forms your child is using correctly or incorrectly. Then you can pinpoint which grammar forms to work on in your daily routine. I would advise that you target one grammar form only per activity, so that you can give specific feedback and your child will understand what you are working on.
Some grammar forms may take a lot of repetition and practice to be learned and used effectively. Therefore, pick your moments and activities to decide what you want to teach your child. For example – if working on irregular past tense verbs, pick a few very common ones to practice in day to day such as ate, drank, went. Then use them in your daily routine – e.g. “I went to school today, we went to the pool, Sally went to the library, I went out with dad, I ate a banana for breakfast, I ate all my lunch, I ate dinner at a restaurant.”
Pick a book you want to read with your child and pick which grammar form you will focus on.
For example when reading a book you can decide you want to tell the story in the past tense. You can target both regular and irregular past tense verbs or just one. If your child has past tense regular verbs but continues to overgeneralize (e.g. eated, drinked, runned) then you can focus on irregular verbs. As you read the story (or even make up your own story) you can say “The little girl drank her milk, ate her apple, and ran off to school.” Ask your child, what did the little girl do? See what your child says and encourage the correct model.
Let’s say your child says “The girl eated an apple.” You’d say “ate an apple, the girl ate an apple” then pause and wait to see if your child says “ate an apple”, if needed prompt again “what did the little girl do?”
I have noticed that many of my kiddos with language disorders tend to have difficulties with pronouns. They primarily confuse male and female pronouns or say me for I/my. There are so many components to language, which adds to the complexity of learning a language. That is why I am always amazed at how so many children learn all these components without any difficulties.
The following is a list of the types of pronouns children should be using in their expressive language according to their age.
Sometimes children might confuse pronouns for first person and second person. For example if I say “your turn” the child will imitate my model “your turn” since they are so used to imitating what I say.
Let’s say I am playing a game and the child has difficulty using “my” and “your” turn, I would simply ask “Who’s turn is it?” and wait to see what they say – if it is their turn and they say “your turn” I would just model “my turn” until they say “my turn” and let them take their turn right away. To teach “my turn” I would have the child say “my turn” and take a turn right away and after several repetitions they’d get the hang of it.
Alternatively, I could also take a turn every time they say “your turn” then at some point they would get mad and say something about it being unfair. Then I’d explain “Oh, you keep saying your turn, if you want a turn then you need to say my turn, okay?” Then practice saying “my turn” and letting them take a turn.
I want to emphasize that at first children learn language naturally through imitation and practicing using language in their daily routine. However, we want children to grow out of imitating and start to speak spontaneously using the language they have acquired. Ultimately, the goal is to have children use language functionally to communicate. We will always be there to provide a model and help them expand their skills, but remember that past 2 years your child should also be able to spontaneously speak and communicate his own thoughts and needs. Therefore, be sure to observe if your child is always imitating what you say or if he/she is also able to independently communicate.
Lastly, another important component of expressive language is the ability to ask questions. Asking questions allows your child to engage in conversations and learn about everything. The following is a list of types of questions children ask according to their age.
Asks the following types of questions using correct grammatical structure:
By asking questions to your children on a daily basis you are providing them with a proper language model of how questions are correctly formulated. Now all you have to do is also engage your child and encourage them to ask questions of their own. Given children are curious beings they usually will follow our lead and start to ask questions. If you need the added practice, I would use books to work on asking questions as well as some board games.
When reading a story, have your child tell you the story and have them ask you the questions. You can tell them today you are the mommy/daddy and I want to you tell me the story like I do and ask me questions. If your child has a difficult time you can help them come up with questions. I often like to ask them if they know something and if they tell me no I say you could ask. For example, I’d day “Do you know what her name is?” If the child says no then I’d say “You can ask” and see if they can say “what’s her name?” If at first they can’t formulate the question then I’d tell them “You can ask, what’s her name?”
Some board games I like to use for questions are “Guess who?” and “Hedbanz”, which kids love to play! Here are some examples of how to practice asking questions using each game.
Guess who is good for mostly yes/no questions – “Is your person a man/woman, does he/she have white/blonde/black hair, does he/she have brown/blue eyes, does he/she have a hat.” You can also pretend you are the person/character and switch the question format to – “Are you a woman/man, do you have red hair, do you wear glasses?” You can also change the rules and ask Wh Questions. You just need to tell your child you can ask different types of questions and give them examples first. If they are used to playing it one way, it may be hard at first to understand that the rules have changed and different questions can be used. For example, you can ask “What color is your hair, what color are your eyes?“
Hedbanz is also usually played using yes/no questions. Each person has a card on their head and has to guess what it is by asking the other playe questions about the card such as “Am I an animal/food/object? Do I live in the ocean? Am I a pig?” However, I like to use Wh Questions when playing this game because it gives you the ability to ask a wide range of questions and also has children practice answering different types of questions. For example, “Where do you find me? What am I used for? When do you use/eat me? What do I look like? How do you use me?“
Here are some of my favorite boardgames that I use when working on asking and answering questions.
Information about communication milestones was referenced from Linguisystems – Guide to Communication Milestones 2012 Edition.
Keep an eye out for the next post of this series on pragmatic language and speech. Leave a comment down below or e-mail me with any questions or ideas that you have.
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