Words are the building blocks of communication!
Symbolic noises and exclamatory words are usually a child’s earliest word approximations and count as first words making them an important part of your child’s speech and language journey. So, what are symbolic noises and exclamatory words?
Symbolic Noises are sounds that represent objects, animals, or actions. Frequently they are onomatopoeic, meaning they sound like the thing they are describing. Examples include:
Objects
- tick-tock (clock)
- beep-beep (car)
- brum-brum (car)
- vroom (car)
- zoom (fast vehicle)
- nee-naw (emergency vehicle)
- choo-choo (train)
- ring-ring (telephone)
Animals
- moo
- woof
- meow
- baa
- oink
- neigh
- quack
- s-s-s (snake)
- buzz (bee)
- ribbit
Actions
- pop
- boom
- bang
- splash
- crunch
- wee (going on a swing or slide)
- ahh-choo (sneeze)
- num-num (eating)
- mmm (eating)
- knock-knock
- snoring
Exclamatory Words are short, fun words that are full of emotion. Exclamatory words are easy to say and catch the attention of most early communicators. Examples include:
- uh-oh
- ooh
- eww
- shh
- wow!
- ouch!
- ahem
- oh no!
- aww
- hm?
- oops
- boom!
- oopsie!
- you-hoo
- ta-da!
- ow
- boo!
- yay!
- phew
- huh?
- tsk-tsk
- hey!
- woah!
Introducing Environmental Noises & Exclamatory Words to Your Child
Start to incorporate environmental noises and exclamatory words into your everyday activities with your child. For example, if you see a cow, show your child the cow and say “cow” as well as “moo.” You could make a game out of repeatedly dropping blocks into a container and saying “oops”, or while pretending to feed your child’s teddy say, “num-num”. Use a fun voice with lots of expressive tones and facial expressions to capture your child’s attention; you can even add gestures!
Don’t expect your child to repeat these words straight away, they will need several opportunities to hear you say the sounds and words in meaningful situations before using the sounds and words themselves. The more your child hears you use these important communication stepping stones, the better equipped they will be to build their path to using words to communicate.
If you would like more information about children’s language development or speech and language therapy with South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy, 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.