Helpful Strategies

Please select one of the following age groups:

 

 

Infants (ages 0-2):

  • Start talking to your baby at an early age (before your baby can talk back). Familiar routines and activities (e.g. bath time, dressing, playing at the park, trips to the grocery store) are great places to talk about where you are going and what you see, hear, taste, smell and feel. Remember to use lots of gestures and make eye contact to capture your baby’s attention.
  • Praise babbling that sounds like an attempted word. Then, model the word that you believe your baby was trying to say. For example, if your baby says, “da” for dog, you say, “Dog. That is a dog.”
  • Encourage your baby to point or make a sound before giving him or her a desired object.  Make eye contact with you baby and hold the desired object beside your mouth as you say the name of the object. When you see that your baby wants something (for example more crackers or a toy), wait 5-10 seconds before you meet his or her needs.
  • Elaborate on the early words your baby says: "Dog says woof. Shhh, quiet dog. Where is the dog going? Here is the dog."
  • Start reading with your baby. Often "early reading" involves looking at pictures on a page without reading the words. Pick books that are durable and have 1-3 large colorful pictures on a page. First, point to the pictures and label the objects, “Here’s a cat.” Then ask your child, "What's this?" Continue to work on labeling and naming a few objects, colors, or actions throughout the book.

 

Toddlers (ages 2-4):

  • At first give simple 1-2 words directions. For example, “up” or “kiss mommy.” As your child develops and becomes more familiar with these requests, expand the directions to 3-4 words and so on. For example, “pick up cookie” or “kiss mommy on nose.”
  • Expand on what your child says to model longer and more complex sentence forms. For example if your child says, “Doggy tree,” you could say, “The dog is under the tree.” You can also rephrase your child’s comment in to a question, “Is the dog under the tree?”
  • Create a category book of favorite things by using photos or cutting out pictures from magazines. Make each page a different category, such as toys, food, cars, colors or animals. Add new pictures and/or category pages to your book each week. Sit down and “read” this book with your child after you add new pictures. In addition, you can write the names of the objects under the pictures.
  • For developing listening skills, play a yes-no game or the 20 questions guessing game. Ask questions like: “Is it big?” “Is it cold?” "Are you a girl?" "Are you big?" "Are you a frog?" Help your child to make up questions and try to fool family members.
  • If your child has difficulty answering open-ended questions (for example “what do you want for snack?”), ask questions that give two choices. "Do you want crackers or grapes?"
  • Sing simple songs that have predictable patterns (for example “Old MacDonald”) and read nursery rhymes to show model the inflections and rhythms of speech.
  • Gather photographs of familiar people and places, and use these pictures to create a brief story with characters, setting and a clear beginning, middle and end. Glue these pictures onto construction paper, to make a storybook that you and your child can read together.

 

Pre-School (ages 4-6):

  • Play guessing games (for example “I Spy”) and give clues about color, taste, texture, shape, location, size, and function to have your child identify what you are describing: "It is big, round, and bounces. I like to bring it to the beach" (beach ball).
  • Work on developing category skills. Label common items around your home, park, and grocery store, and explain what category the items belong under (for example, soap, sponge, and towel are all used to clean). In addition, be detectives and find the item that does not belong in a group of similar objects: "A mitten does not belong with a pillow and blanket because you don’t sleep on it.”
  • Practice following and giving simple two- and three-step directions. For example, "First brush your teeth, then wash your face." You can ask, “Can you tell me how to build a fort with pillows?” If your child has difficulty giving sequential directions, you can model the directions one step at a time.
  • Imaginary play is an important skill for developing self-talk and organizational skills. Use common toys and objects around the house to play games like "school." Switch roles in the family; give your child a chance to be the teacher.
  • When reading a book together, have your child guess what might happen next. Ask how characters feel. What is the problem and how might it be solved? Ask your child to tell you the main events in a story. Act out a scene together, and think of a new beginning or ending.
  • Opportunities to develop language are present in everyday activities. For example, ask your child to name items in different aisles of the grocery store. Discuss the foods in each aisle, their color, texture, size, shape and taste. Where does the food come from? Which foods are sweet? Which do you eat at breakfast?

 

Early Elementary School (ages 6-8):

  • Try to respond to what your child is saying before correcting sentence structure or word pronunciation. After you respond, provide a model of the correct response. For example, if your child says, “She is did,” you say, “Yes, she is done.”
  • Instead of telling your child that the way he or she said something was wrong, try rephrasing his or her comment by saying, “I heard you say…” or asking, “Did you mean…”
  • Practice role-playing common social situations. Provide models and feedback about how your child should talk differently to a baby versus his or her teacher. Have your child practice explaining the rules to a familiar game (e.g., Go Fish) to a group of children and then to you (or other adults).
  • Gather photos of people’s faces and play a game trying to guess how the people are feeling. Make-up a phrase or sentence that the person in the photo might say, based on their facial expression (e.g., a smiling person might say “that’s great!”)

 

Later Elementary School (ages 8-12):

  • Continue to support reading; find books, magazines and websites that your child is interested in and therefore, motivated to read. For books that are above your child’s reading level, consider reading aloud to him or her or using an audio book so that your child can listen and follow along with the text.
  • Help your child express opinions about what he or she hears or reads. Ask questions like, “How does that make you feel?” or “Why do you feel that way?”
  • Encourage your child to make personal connections to what he or she is reading and/or learning at school. For example, if your child is learning about the environment ask if he or she wants to be in charge of recycling in your house. 
  • Model how to work through problems (academic or social) by talking aloud as you solve problems.  For example, if you didn’t have enough spaghetti to make dinner you might say aloud, “With the ingredients that I do have I could make meatloaf instead, but this will take longer to bake so I better start making dinner at 5:30 instead of 6.” This helps your child understand the sequence and logic behind your problem solving strategy.
  • Point out common spelling patterns when reading or writing, such as beginnings and endings of words (e.g., pre- or -ment).
  • Encourage your child to write, write, write! Provide him or her with materials to write postcards, letters, cards, journals, or stories. Try setting up a pen-pal with a family member or friend who lives in another town, state or country.

 

Many of these strategies were adapted from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Website. For additional suggestions from ASHA, please visit the ASHA strategies page.