A child’s first word is a huge milestone; and then comes the exciting next step: helping your child put words together to share what they want, see, and think. Below are some easy, practical strategies you can weave into your day to help your little talker find their voice and become a more confident communicator.
What Counts as a Word?
Children need to be able to say about 50 single words before they are able to start combining words when speaking, and they need a variety of word types in their early expressive vocabulary. So, first things first, what counts as an early word?
- Actual words: “mama,” “baby”
- Word Approximations: “bu” for book, “ka” for car
- Animal Sounds: “moo,” “woof-woof”
- Environmental Noises: “vroom,” “beep-beep”
- Makaton & Baby Signs
How to Get There
Before children are able to say words in a meaningful way, they need repeated opportunities to hear words and phrases in natural, meaningful contexts. You can do this through…
- Modelling: Use single and simple two-word combinations to talk about what interests your child and what they are doing. Pair your words with gestures and/or signs.
- Pausing: Provide opportunities for your child to fill in routine phrases.
- Adult: “Wind the bobbin…..”
- Child: Says “up” and/or does the gesture
- Expanding: Once your child has about 50 single words in their expressive vocabulary, continue to use simple language models with an emphasis on simple two- and three-word combinations. Pair your words with gestures and/or signs.
- Match Plus One: When your child uses a single word, add one word to what they said.
- Child: “ball”
- Adult: “big ball”
- More Pausing: Continue to provide your child with opportunities to join the conversation by pausing so they can fill in the gap with words they know in the context of your routine.
- Adult: “Wind the …..”
- Child: Says “bobbin up” and/or says “bobbin” and does the gesture for ‘up’
Suggestions for Early Words to Practise
When thinking about early vocabulary for your child, focus on early core words, nouns, verbs, descriptors, and location words so they have lots of different word types (this is key to combining words!). Unless your child shows a particular academic interest, save the academic words (letters, colours, numbers, shapes) for later.
Below is some vocabulary to get you and your early communicator started.
| Core Words | Nouns | Nouns | Verbs | Descriptors | Location |
| more | mummy | juice | drink | hot | here |
| help | daddy | milk | eat | cold | there |
| all done | nanny | biscuit | play | fast | in |
| mine | siblings’ names | banana | sleep | slow | out |
| no | baby | apple | run | happy | on |
| go | truck | chocolate | read | sad | under |
| stop | choo-choo train | ice cream | climb | clean | up |
| me | aeroplane | dog | blow | dirty | down |
| hi | book | cat | jump | big | off |
| bye | ball | bird | throw | little | inside |
| again | blocks | cow | wash | broken | outside |
| uh-oh | bubbles | duck | look | hurt | behind |
| yes | toes | nappy | dance | good | |
| (my) turn | tummy | shirt / top | draw | bad | |
| want | ears | sock | open | noisy | |
| that | eyes | wellie | fall down | quiet | |
| give | nose | shoe | splash | pretty |
As always, if you have questions, please get in touch. Follow us on Facebook for more speech, language, and feeding tips, and sign up for South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy’s newsletter if you would like new posts sent directly to your inbox.
Please note that this article was written with Analytic Language Learners in mind. If your child is a Gestalt Language Learner, their path to flexible word combinations will be different. For information about Gestalt Language Learners please see South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy’s posts about Gestalt Language Learning.