Teaching Your Child to Talk Using Imitation
A child's ability to listen and imitate words from people around them is one of the fundamental building blocks of language development. Having your child repeat words after you can help expand their vocabulary, improve their speech production, and ultimately help them better understand the world around them. So here are some ways to encourage your child to repeat after you during the day.
It's important to find opportunities throughout your child's daily routines to practice word imitation. This can happen during playtime or everyday activities like brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, getting dressed, or going to the grocery store. Start by modeling your language expectation for your child and wait to see if they respond or imitate you. For example, when playing with a toy car, model the word "go," then wait expectantly while making consistent eye contact with your child. The goal is to have your child repeat back "go." If they do, move on to another toy and try again to reinforce the skill.
Early in a child's life it's important to routinely label actions, people, and items to help your child's understanding of their surroundings. For example, you can encourage your young child to say "bye bye" while waving to a family member and modeling the words, then waiting for your child to repeat it themselves. You can model the word "yes" by shaking your head up and down and the word "no" by shaking your head side to side. Other simple words to label include "mama," "dada," and "hi."
When imitating words, it's important to follow your child's lead and focus on items and actions that they enjoy. This is also a great way to show them how to make one-word requests. For example, let's say your child loves the song "Wheels on the Bus." You could say, "Let's sing 'Wheels on the Bus,'" making sure to emphasize the word "bus." Then, just as before, wait expectantly for a period of time, and hopefully your child will repeat back "bus."
If they don't imitate your words at first, don't worry. This is to be expected. What's important is that you continue to repeat the process over and over again throughout your child's daily life. Children learn best from routines and repetition, so don't get discouraged, and keep trying.
