HOME TRAINING TO ENCOURAGE SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

In this modern world there are many ways you can help your child to learn and this will help the
child to understand and use words. Consult/Ask a speech-language pathologist if you have any
concern.

HOME TRAINING FOR 1 YEAR TO 2 YEAR CHILD

Develop eye to eye contact and attention span: When your baby laughs or makes faces. Make the
same faces back to baby. Wear some mask and play with child. Parent should make sure that the child
is focusing to your actions. Look at your child when child makes sounds. Talk back to him/her, and
say what he/she says. Pretend to have a conversation with them.

Develop eye hand coordination: Teach your child to pick some objects/stickers, fix the beads on
the string, arrange rings in different size, fix the puzzles.
Develop matching skills: Teach your child to match the things/ pictures/ objects. Use the activities
for matching like picture to picture, object to picture and object to object. Make the child to use/sort
the shadows of the pictures.
Develop non-verbal imitation: Teach your baby to do what you do, like clapping your hands and
playing peek-a-boo, combing hair, arranging objects in order(ascending/descending). Use gestures,
like waving and pointing.
Develop verbal imitation: Teach your baby to do what you do in verbal/making sounds. Use
words like "The dog says woof-woof, the cat says meow-meow”. Also ask the child to use
syllables like (a, u & i).
Develop the skills to use vegetative skills (sucking, blowing, chewing, biting, stop drooling):
Teach your baby, how to suck through nipple and straw. Teach the child to blow tissues, bubbles,
paper, balloons and candles. Teach the child to bite and chew through using different type of food
materials/tool kit. Teach the child to correct closure of mouth/lip, through oral facial massage and
strengthening muscles.
Develop sitting tolerance: Teach your baby to sit in a particular place and make him/her to
complete target activity. During this fixed time, don’t allow the child to leave the chair. Remember,
gradually increase sitting tolerance level.
Develop simple expression: Talk to your baby as you give him/her a bath, while feeding, and get
him/her dressed. Talk about what you are doing and where you are going. Tell him/her who or
what you will see.
Develop the usage of Motherese: Add on to what your baby says. When your baby says,” Mama,"
say, "Here is Mama. Mama loves you. You are mama’s good baby. Where is baby? Here is baby.
Develop pointing skills: Teach the child to point the desired objects. Give instructions to figure
out the pictures, whenever asks. Ask the child to point out colors and shapes.
Develop communication through gestures: Give one step command to your baby and ask
him/her to follow through gestures, like come, open, close, give etc.
Develop functional communication skills: Give one-word commands to your baby and ask
him/her to follow. If your baby has confusions to follow, initially parents/caregiver should
demonstrate it like come, go, take etc.
Develop simple pragmatic skills: Read to your child. You don't have to read every word, but talk
about the pictures. Choose books that are sturdy and have large colorful pictures. Ask your
child, "What's this?" and try to get him to point to or name objects. Ask the child to explain it.
(turn taking).
Develop greeting skills: Teach your child to greet other child, strangers, family members and
relatives. Mostly give the opportunities to explore with other peers. You can prompt the child
based on the situation, say hello, bye, come again, see you soon etc.
Develop simple vocabulary skills: Teach your child to identify the different types of picture
cards. Instruct the child to name it whenever we asked. You can teach the child using many ways,
example categorization, using flash cards, picture books, visual stimuli etc.

(These described home training goals are important to develop speech and language skills and
communication skills. It will enhance the vocabulary aspects of the child).

Prepared for public health and rehabilitation information

Kunnampallil Gejo John
Speech Language Pathologist/Therapist