My Child Is Late to Talk. What Can I Do?
If your child is using fewer words than other children their age, it is very hard not to compare. Most parents in this position have already had at least one conversation where someone told them not to worry, and it did not help much.
Children do develop communication at genuinely different rates, and a lot of children who start slowly catch up without any help at all. That is true, and it is also true that some children need support, and that getting it early tends to make things easier. Both things can be the case at once.
This page is for parents and carers, and everything on it you can start today, at home, for free. If you are a teacher or early years practitioner, our companion article on supporting late talkers in the classroom covers the same ground from a setting’s point of view.
Late to talk, or hard to understand?
These are two different things, and they need slightly different responses.
Late to talk is about how many words your child uses: fewer words than their peers, or shorter sentences, or not yet putting two words together. That is what this page is about.
Hard to understand is about clarity: your child may be talking plenty, but people outside the family struggle to follow. If that sounds more like your child, our page on unclear speech is the more useful one.
Plenty of children are a bit of both, in which case start here.
Five things you can do at home
Give your child a reason to communicate
Try not to anticipate everything. If you hand over the beaker before they have asked, there was no reason to ask. Put a favourite toy in sight but out of reach, on a high shelf or in a clear container they cannot open on their own, and then wait. The waiting is the hard part and it is the part that works.
Talk through the day as it happens
Describe what you can both see and what you are both doing, in simple language: “washing hands”, “shoes on”, “Daddy’s coming”. Getting dressed, the walk to nursery and the supermarket are all good for this, because the words attach to something your child is looking at.
Add one word to whatever they say
If your child says “car”, you say “red car” or “car driving”. If they say “more”, you say “more juice”. You are showing them how words join together, one step ahead of where they are. There is no need for them to repeat it back, and asking them to rather defeats the point.
Play, and let them lead
Get down to their level, join in with whatever they have chosen, and follow rather than direct. Play is where most language learning actually happens, because your child is already interested and already paying attention.
Take the pressure off
Try not to fire off questions, and try to avoid “say ball”, “say it properly”, “can you say thank you”. It is a natural instinct and it usually makes a child less likely to talk, not more. Comment rather than question: “you found the ball” does more than “what’s that?”.
When to ask for advice
There is no need to wait and see if you are worried. Trust what you are noticing; parents are usually right that something is different, even when they are not sure what.
It is worth speaking to someone if your child is around two and using very few words, is not putting two words together by around two and a half, seems frustrated at not being understood, or has stopped using words they previously had. That last one always warrants a conversation.
Visit your GP, who can refer you to your local NHS speech and language therapy service. You can also contact us to be seen privately, usually within three weeks: email enquiries@londonspeechtherapy.co.uk or call 020 3475 2189.
You can read more about how we work with children on our speech and language therapy for children page, and about what happens at a first appointment in our guide to your child’s first appointment.
