How can speech development be encouraged in young children?
First of all, how do you know he/she is delayed? If you have questions – get him/her evaluated, it is easy, often free. The speech therapist will give you lots of ideas of how to help him/her. I would not want to give you specific advice without knowing anything about the child or your situation. Here are some web sites with great and reliable information http://www.asha.org/public/speech/develo… I do agree that exposure to other children and a high-quality daycare or preschool is a good idea. You are welcome to email me directly since I am a speech-language pathologist (25 yrs in the field) and a mom of 3 BTW, it is spelled “whose” in your sentence, “whose development is behind”. Best wishes! Good luck!
My son has a speech delay and honestly the best thing for him has been me shutting up, and bringing him to daycare. Counterintuitive, I know. But I realized that I stayed at home with him, knew all his needs, and wasn’t making him talk. I would talk TO him all the time, almost constantly because I’d just gotten into the habit because I’d read that was good to encourage speech, but I never REQUIRED him to say anything. Sometimes never even gave him the chance! 🙁 And being in daycare and seeing other kids modeling speech has also helped a lot too.
