Babytalk

When my daughter was 18 months, she would say "ball" and "car" and that was it. She didn't point to body parts at that point or follow other simple commands. I found the book BabyTalk: Strengthen Your Child's Ability to Listen, Understand, and Communicate by Dr. Sally Ward to be very helpful. The author is a speech therapist in England who has done studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of her BabyTalk program. The book is divided by age from birth to 4 years old, and describes what children should be able to do at each age and how to help them develop further. It took a little while to understand the organization of the book by age and how to implement the program. That could be spelled out a little more clearly. However, I was able to figure it out pretty quickly and it was well worth it. Basically, I needed to use very simple sentences like, "That's a book" and make an effort to teach my daughter vocabulary. It's very simple to implement, but I didn't know what to do until the book spelled it out. My daughter has progressed very rapidly since then. At 19-1/2 months, she speaks over 60 words and has good comprehension for body parts and simple commands. She speaks a new word or two every day. I will continue to use the book as a guide to how to keep up with her developing abilities and help her progress further.

I was given this book when my son was 3 months old and have been recommending it and loaning it out to friends ever since. THe focus is on speech development, but it has great ideas for play and interaction at every stage of infancy thru age 4. While the author specializes in children with speech difficulties, this program is great for all children. My son is now 24 months old and ahead in speech for his age. He seemed to learn to speak really quickly and now many of his sentences are pretty long and complex, e.g. at the playground yesterday: "Mummy, that boy is really upset because his mother is going away", or "Mummy, please can you come and see what I'm doing". I attribute this pretty much to the BabyTalk program because the principles here have really determined how his Dad and I have interacted with him ever since we got the book. Being able to communicate really well already not only makes his life less frustrating (he has only ever had a handful of tantrums), it also sets him in good stead for the future academically. I had no background in early childhood development so it's been most helpful to have such a thorough and practical book to accompany his development. There are vital principles to learn about playing with, listening to, and talking to your child that are fundamental but easy to apply, and clearly presented here. It also warns you against very common ways of talking to young children (pointless questions, correcting, asking the child to say this or that, amongst others), which turn out to be quite harmful to their speech development. In addition to giving me needed ideas about structuring our play and interactions (I ran out of ideas and sometimes became a little bored before reading the great ideas in the book), it gives you the background in cognitive and sensory development that helps you understand why they are the way they are and what's going on inside their heads. It gives you a great respect for the child and their ability to learn. There are ideas for age appropriate games, conversation, books, and toys at each stage of development. It's based solidly on research and clinical experience. This is a gem of a book and I am so thankful that I was given it early on, but it doesn't matter at what stage you get started. Go ahead and get it!

Along with "Baby Signs," this book should be on the shelf of any person who wants to help boost their child's communication skills. The author advocates a daily 1/2 hour playtime during which you eliminate all distractions so that you can have one on one time with your baby/toddler/preschooler to play with her toys and focus on talking with her. One of the main points presented is that you should never outright correct a child's speech, ask them to repeat words, or ask them questions demanding an answer as this can make them feel belittled and actually hinder their speech development. Instead you should simply repeat the word back to them in its correct form and use short, direct sentences so that they can follow the words."Baby Talk" is full of great advice for helping your child to listen and understand. There are suggestions for toys and books for each age group (the program is for children birth to age four) and it also lists signs to look for in the case that she might need a speech therapist.

I have been waiting for this book since February, and I am very pleased with it. This book is very easy to read and follow. It is filled with direction as well as examples. My toddler is speech delayed. I found this book to be comforting, my child is one of many experiencing speech delays. The author's suggestions are realistic, and span the ages birth to 4 years old. I plan to buy this book as a gift for the next baby shower I attend.