Week 16 How to Use Those Easy Sounds to Pop Words!!

Today is all about easy ways to get your child "popping" simple words. Last week we were looking at when sounds come in developmentally. Today we are going to take that idea one step further.

Let's look again at those first sounds that come in...the ones that we only need our lips and some air and voice to create. P, B, M, N, H, W, yes, those are the ones. If you notice that your child can produce any of those sounds, we are going to jump on that and form some words...WOO HOO!!

First off picture yourself on the floor playing with your child. Let's do the car scenario again. So, we are on the floor and we are playing with cars. And now we want to pop some words...so, what do we model??? Try words like "up", "beep", "bus" but don't worry about the "s" sound, "wow", "me", "mine", "more" don't worry about the "r", "boom" when you crash the cars together, "no", etc. etc. You can even try for some two word phrases like "oh no!"; "my bus", "no mine".

Now we are tying lots of ideas together and it's working!!!! We are using a simple one word model of a word that has easy sounds in it. We are using animation, we are having fun, we are waiting and giving our child a chance to imitate, and you know what, we are hearing words or word approximations! Amazing.

What about the next set of sounds like "D,T,G,K"? How about "go", "two", "down", "car" remember, don't worry about the "r". And if your child is already using the easy sounds from above you might be hearing some two word phrases like "up car", "go up", "my car", "go away", "bus down", etc, etc.

Isn't it exciting how easy this can all build on each other? Take a minute today and jot down some words with the easy sounds in them for you to try this week. Also, take the time to jot down all the words, signs, word approximations that your child is saying and put it on the refrigerator. So many parents say to me, my child isn't saying anything, but when you actually start noticing what is coming out of your child's mouth you may be very surprised. The list can be very reassuring.

Let me know how this goes. Talk to you next week.