Nancy Davenport's Column:
For Richardson News 08-20-00
Copyright Nancy Lambert Davenport 2000

• Play frequently with your child. Be sure you both are involved equally in the activity.
• Wait for your child to talk. Give him tithe to respond. Don't do all the talking.
• Respond to your child's sounds and actions for what they are - communication.
• Match your child's actions and communications with similar ones. Mimic him. Play with sounds back and forth.
• Translate your child's language of sounds and movements into a word.
• Don't rush your child to words. Communicating with sounds comes first.
• Show him what to say in one or two words. Many young children can't process many sounds at once anyway, so he might as well hear the important ones.
• Reduce your number of questions, especially ones that require yes/no answers. Show your child what to say instead.
• Be a living dictionary. Put words to your child's experiences as they happen. You are translating his language into yours.
• Once he is talking some, respond less to his gestures and more to his sounds.
• Accept any pronunciation at first. Work the correct pronunciation into your words without it seeming like a correction. Stress the sound that needs changing when you use that sound.
  
  Once you are sure he is physically capable of saying a sound correctly, insist upon it patiently through small steps of progress.
  
  Your saying nothing tells him the pronunciation is correct.
• When he is using one word at a time with frequency, begin adding important second words. Graduate from "dog" to "want dog." Use sign language as a bridge.
• Although you are his best. play partner, not his teacher, be convinced that you as the parent are your child's best speech teacher.

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