How To Meet Speech Milestones with Confidence in 2024

One of your top concerns as a new mom is meeting milestones ... on time!

So let's finish the TOP 10 SECRETS to helping your toddler move from single words to 2-word phrases and then you can pick up your  FREE Building Vocabulary: Single Words to 2-Word Phrases Guide

CLICK HERE NOW TO GET YOUR GUIDE

Ep # 71 we continue the deep dive into how and why every parent needs to keep a word list for those first 24 - 30 months ... maybe longer for some 'slow talkers' ... but MORE importantly the secrets behind you understanding (with confidence) where your toddler stands today.

With this understanding you can easily support him through everyday activities to build his vocabulary ... then expand to phrases with ease.

Just like we support little ones as they find their balance when taking their first steps ... we need to guide them through single words and phrases ... making talking purposeful and effective, not to mention efficient.

Enjoy the complete series, Episodes 69, 70 and 71

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CLICK HERE - Building Vocabulary: Single Words to 2-Word Phrases Guide

If you haven't listened to Episodes 69 & 70 ... it may be helpful to go back there first ... then you will have all 10 Secrets and you can hit the floor running in 2024.

Happy New Year!

Transcript

Erin: 0:00

this is why these books are very, very popular. This is why almost every culture uses these children books that are written in this style because if they have a tagline, that's a repeated over and over again, then your child is mapping that both auditorily. So he's understanding it, but then he can imitate it. Right. And then he can say it with you. And then he can say independently. Hello, and welcome to Talking Toddlers, where I share more than just tips and tricks on how to reduce tantrums or build your toddler's vocabulary. We're going to cover all of that, but here, our goal is to develop clarity. Because in this modern world, it's truly overwhelming. This podcast is about empowering moms to know the difference between fact and fiction, to never give up, to tap into everyday activities so your child stays on track. He's not falling behind. He's thriving through your guidance. We know that true learning starts at home. So let's get started. I know one of your biggest worries as a new mom is meeting the milestones on time. it's often listed as the top three, right behind your fear of finding your child not breathing in his bed. And or choking and I get it all three are worrisome. And that's why I like to dive deep into these 10 secrets that help you support your toddler. Moving from single words to two words phrases, because that is a huge two year milestone. Your pediatrician is going to ask you about it. Your mom, your friends, your brother, everybody knows. Oh, they have 50 words and they start using two word phrases by their second birthday. The truth is that kids get stuck here often. And there were a lot of things that you can do at home to unstick them, To get them moving down the developmental pathway. And I know that you're uncertain of how to do it. which then quite often leads to feeling guilty and perhaps even a bit ashamed because you're thinking to yourself, shouldn't I know how to do this stuff. No, no, not really. Unless you went to college for seven years and then you began practicing and continued your studies year after year for the next 30 plus years. That's exactly what I did. And this stuff comes easy for me, but I've been in it for three and a half decades. And so, no, I don't expect the average mom or dad or grandparents out there unless you've been in it. And you haven't, this is all new stuff to you. So that's why I'm sharing And diving deep, because I want you to understand the nuances. So you don't feel ashamed or guilty or uncertain that you really feel confident and comfortable helping your child at home each and every day. let's do a quick review of number one through six, which I did in the two previous episodes. Keep in mind that no matter where your little guy or your little gala is today. Going through these top 10 and understanding what they are, whether they're at a handful of single words or they're using 50 words. These secrets or these steps that we use in therapy that really help move the needle will help you significantly, at home. you'll have to have a little courage yup. To open up this Pandora box and start to investigate and study like I've shared with you in the previous episodes. But once you figure out where your child is and what he is or isn't doing by himself, then you have the tools to support him. I did go back and make a checklist for all of you, because I thought, wow, this is a lot of information. And I even created. Uh, graph in which you can plot where they are. And so you can have a nice record system. Do it today, do it next week, or keep adding words over the next month or two and watch him really blossom under your leadership. So the first. six was number one was to make a word list. Right. Your child needs to have a least 35 words before the, he can start to put words together. And record record record, use it secretly, right? Turn on your audio you. Don't have to do a video with him. But, put it subtly at the table and record him. So you can go back and analyze, I do this, you can do this. Number two, there are seven grammatical categories and I listed them out on your little check sheet. which would include nouns and verbs and adjectives. We want your son or daughter to be having all of them so he can start to put concepts and thoughts together. It's purposeful communication. Number three, he needs two syllable words. Before we can expect him to use two words as a phrase. He needs to understand that there are two parts that can go back to back. Right. So think of two syllable words that have a different vowel at the end of each syllable, like BUB-ble. or MON-key. COO-kie right now, if he doesn't have the two different syllables, then go back and I explained this in a previous episode, how you can help him do that reduplication. That was number three. Number four there are five syllable structures that you need to be able to analyze. And F he is only using one or two of these then he stuck there and you can help build that repertoire. those would be the examples I gave you UP NO CUP Mama OPEN. All right, those are just examples. And I do define them on your, PDF right. Number five, that he needs to hear two word phrases often throughout the day before he can imitate them. And that's your cue mom to be mindful of your speech, right? Choose your words wisely. Now that you have this chart, you say, okay, what are the syllable structures? What are the grammatical categories, how can I use my playtime and my one-to-one time? Remember. Those little snippets when you change him, when you give him a bath, when you sit down with a meal, when you go shopping. All of these are great opportunities things that you have to do together. So make it purposeful. Number six. He needs to imitate two word phrases. Before he can use them on his own. And that's for typical kids, right? Some times they will look at a two word phrase that you and I look at as two words, but they look at it as one unit. And we'll talk a little bit more about that again. But this suggests that lots of his playtime needs to be purposeful, right? If he's stuck at one of these levels and we want to move him down the road. Then we need to say, Hey, how can I get him to imitate me in a playful manner? So that was number six. So now let's talk about the last four. And I, preface all of this because there is some more nuance involved here. That's why I dive deep. But I sure you, if you take the time, it will make sense, especially if you secretly record him and then you can go back and listen, and then you use my description sheet and my, Record keeping. Page, and then you'll be able to really understand where your son or daughter sits today knowing that, I know what to do over the next two weeks and four weeks and six weeks. So let's start with number seven today. Some kids do need what we call an in-between or an interim step. When they're kind of stuck with the single syllables. And we want to push them or help support them into two word phrases. It doesn't mean that they're necessarily delayed or that they have a speech disorder. It just means that they're kind of stuck they've plateaued. And perhaps, because you don't know what you don't know, you didn't know how to nudge him along. And that's what it is. Right. But with your guidance using these strategies or secrets, then you can truly, truly make a difference. And it doesn't take long. You'll see. When kids do get stuck at the single word phrase. Then it more or less is a motor planning. It doesn't necessarily mean that they have motor planning. Deficit, like I said, it just means that they need more practice. He needed more practice to become a fluid Walker. Right. He needs more practice to climb up the little stairs so he can go down the slide. He needs more practice to learn how to, put his pants on or go potty all of those things. There's a lot going on. And so now we want to really focus on speech and language. So we often do this naturally when they're younger, when they're closer to 10, 12, 14 months, when they're just starting to use single words. we'll zone in on something that's cute or fun. It's often used around what we call location or propositional words, or even verbs and actions, because they're fun to play with. So say you're walking upstairs and you'll say up. Up up. You'll repeat that vowel consonant, right? That U P UP. And you want to encourage him to sing along, speak along with you right. And then you can use some actions. like I said, because they're playful, right? Walk, walk, walk, whether you guys are walking or maybe you're playing with the little people at the farm and. you have the little cow and you say, walk, walk, walk. You know, whether he's walking into the barn or on top of the fence or whatever it is. You could even have, I have this, very old classic fire truck and the little people. Go down, down, down the ladder on the back of the fire truck, right. Or any animal doing an action, Sleep, sleep, sleep, or. when you're, getting ready to go to bed and his three, four or five little stuffies that he loves and he can kiss, kiss, kiss. Or even kiss you on each cheek and a forehead. Again, you're wanting to three syllables getting him to repeat more than one syllable, Extend his verbal speech. Now I do always caution all my families and therapists that. That it should be in context and it should have meaning to him. So you're giving. Your stuffies a kiss because you're going to bed. The little boy is climbing up or down the ladder. You are walking up the stairs. It's all in context. You're not drilling him. You're not asking him to just repeat after you because that's not engaging. That's not memorable. That's not really learning. That's just memorizing. We don't want to go there. another way to practice this is around books and using those pictures. And I have, shared in the past a little bit of how you can use books as a facilitating tool. Yes. It's rich with language and all of this. But it's also just a nice tool that you can always have in your backpack or in the back of the car, or, before you got to take a nap, but the idea is. To look at the pictures and not necessarily label them because what we want is we want to put the same syllable or the same word side-by-side to build up his, what we call co articulation. When we build the sequential pattern longer and longer. I have have a great book called, the hundred and one. First words for babies, right. Is from highlight company. And. They have categories, right? They'll have pats or farm animals or things that we, that go that go right. Or things that we eat are things in the kitchen. And so you have to be a little mindful and always be like a half a step ahead of him. So you're not necessarily going to label them straightforwardly. Say you have a page and they're all pets. So you're not going to look at and say parakeet. Puppy fish. You're going to say pet pet, pet. They all live in the house, right? Pet, pet, pet. So something short and sweet that he can repeat and get going a page with all food, eat, eat, eat, or food, food, food. or things that go right. And again, you could say, go, go, go, but you could look at an airplane and you can say, it goes up, up, up. Or the bus can go honk, honk, honk. Or you can look at a bus and he can say we'll we'll we'll again, these are going to be approximated from him, but what the target is is to get him to say two or three syllables, sequentially, right? And so you have to. You know, take a little thought and, and plan you could even have on the page where you have things that go right. There's a picture of a stroller and he can say, what do you do with a stroller, push, push, push. Right. or training says choo choo choo. Again, make it up as you go along. Always be a half a step ahead of him. And, make it playful. And the whole idea is that you're grouping similar things, so he can start to put words or syllables together. And you can do this with objects too. So if he has, a bunch of cars and you can say, car, car, car, or he can say voom room room, Or beat, like I said before, beep beep beep. Or, an animal, right? Or if you have different cows, You have a whole family of cows and whatever you see in your immediate environment, how can you help encourage him? To repeat these syllables. I think it's pretty obvious of how we can manipulate our play time to make it learning conducive or I can turn any event therapeutically, right? So later on once he gets going with this and he understands, oh, you want me to make it longer? And it's not just a single syllable, then you can put. Objects or pictures together. So say you're with. The little people and you're using a farm or something and you have a cow. A bucket and barn, and you can say milk cow barn. Because they're all related and you're not going to say an elaborate sentence, like, oh, let's milk the cow in the barn. But you want him to string three related words: Cow, milk, barn. So he's labeling these things, but he's putting them together motorically and conceptually. and so you're teaching him both things. And I explained this in a previous episode about the bottom up are the building blocks, right? Saying that the sounds within words, in the words, within a sentence structure or a phrase in this case, And then the concept, right? Understanding how these are related. in real time as we play with this farm set, now you do stretch it out a little bit. There's a teeny, teeny, tiny little pause between cow milk barn. You know, you're stretching it out. But you're not separating them into single words again, that would be defeating the purposes. of this whole exercise over this whole playtime, right? The main point. Is that we're building the articulation load, right? The motor planning, the, and that just takes practice. and you can do it in real time with everyday events to say, you just are cleaning up after your lunch, and you can put the dirty dishes on the counter and can say cup. Cup cup. Or you're wiping off the table and you say, wipe, wipe, wipe again, it's in real time in context, he's doing something. He knows what they are. It's all relatable. The key here or the main takeaway is to start to peel back the layers and analyze where is your son or daughter today? And what's the next logical step. And as I said in the description down below, you can click and get my description of each one of these 10. Secrets quote unquote. and then a, uh, recordkeeping method that you can visually see, where am I and where am I going? So I'm always talking about neuroplasticity here on these episodes, because that's what learning, that's where learning takes place up in the neurological networks that we're building. Or better yet. that's how we learn through action through attention. Through engagement and like, Neuroscientists have taught me over the years that neurons, that fire together. Wire together. So the more we practice these motor planning in real time with speech sounds and words and syllables. Then the more they'll build. And at the same time, what we're also building is this auditory processing. That it becomes more and more automatic, right? Those neurons are firing they're wiring together. They're building neural pathways that get faster and faster and more efficient. And so automaticity. Means that or happens when you hear something over and over. And again, And your brain begins to recognize it. And then it begins to predict what comes next. you and I do this when we listen to a new song and your child is doing this throughout these first 3, 5, 6 years with language and every other motor skills that he or she is learning. But one way to practice this, and I mentioned this, a few minutes ago is with books, but you can then look at books that have a repetitive theme. And again, this is why these books are very, very popular. This is why almost every culture uses these children books that are written in this style is because if they have a tagline, that's a repeated over and over again. Then your child is mapping that both auditorily. So he's understanding it, but then he can imitate it. Right. And then he can say it with you. And then he can say independently. So the classic one is brown bear brown bear. What do you see? I see. And again, I'm. I'm slowing it down. I'm ch I'm not reading it fast and quick. It's it's an engagement. And then he has the picture in front of them. You can point, you can anticipate, you know, you can hold the book up. You know, turn the page. What do you see? I see, and then he turns it. Ah, Blue bird looking at me. Right. And it's, and these. Remarkable stories are books or tools. Our language facilitators and it's so. Much fun to watch your child be in the moment with you doing this. And it's really, really, really important in building. Motor planning skills, spontaneous language, and building that sequential pattern. Now, one of my favorite books has always been Where's Spot. It's just been a classic in my practice for umpteen years. And it's one of those board books where you're just looking for the little puppy and there's a, a flap with each page. And you say, is he behind the door? And then you have him. Knock on the door. Again, these are gestures. This gets building a routine he's imitating you and say, ah, spot. Are you there? And then he opens the flap. Oh, Is that spot. And then he says, no, no, no. It's a bear. And you build up this routine with these very highly structured. Repetitive. You get bored after a while, but you can see your child progress week after week after week as he's building his understanding his patients. You know, sometimes you make him wait a little bit longer to open up the door and you ask him more questions. But it's all about making sense for him, right? The little spot needs to be fed. Mommy's looking for him. And you're helping him anticipate, engage. At the same time that you're helping him practice motor planning skills. And, you know, just keep it fun, keep it lighthearted. Think that you're building his, his vocabulary as you're looking at. Is he on under the stairs? Is he inside the clock? Tick. Talk tick. Talk is the, and the piano. So you're giving prepositions. You can even do colors. It's a pink piano. It's a yellow staircase, all these kinds of things. And there's very, very simple classic book. Can build language and attention and speech and articulation and counting and all kinds of wonderful, wonderful, rich opportunities. And I know I sound like a broken record sometimes. But guys, mom, dad, it works. This is what speech therapists do day in and day out. This is what I did for 35 years. And truth be told I could read this and play with a spot book, for 10 kids, right. In a row. because every child responds to it a little bit differently. We have, you know, different little. expectations with each other. You know, some kids always knocked some kids, kind of peeked under the flap. We build our own little special. Routine. And it's so much fun to watch your child blossom. Um, before your very eyes, right? So. We can always go back to singing familiar songs. And when your child has heard this song, many, many, many, many times his brain, that neuroplasticity begins to expect what comes next. It's a beautiful way again, to get him engaged with you to practice without. Too much pressure. As, you know, we would just leave off the last word in that phrase, such as row, row, row, your. And it goes back to things that I've shared with you in the past, you know, have him sit on your lap row, back and forth, get good eye contact. Whisper and have him sing along with you. It's all about engagement and using automation to help build his motor planning skills. And then of course, This time of year, just use the Christmas songs, We wish you a Merry. And you give him that big smile, that anticipation. Fill in the blank. Join me with the songs. And the hand gestures or Santa Claus is calm mean. and you get it, It works. It is magic. It's like gold. Make it easy, make it fun, make it rewarding. And you will see your child blossom. So. The other. side note that I've shared before, and I'm going to reiterate over and over again, is that when we are singing or we're reading these books, especially from, eight, 10 months, but that first birthday to that second birthday to that, third birthday. Make sure you slow down. Make sure that he is in sync with you. And that's why I strongly strongly encourage that you do the singing and not rely on recordings because then you control the speed at which he's processing and understanding and anticipating you control the level of engagement. You control the feeling of anticipation in real time. So most children's recordings and the toys with music are way too fast for any child. But especially for our child, that you're trying to move down the road. And it's too hard to keep up with that. And there's a lot of background. You want to keep it simple. You want real speech? A real good model. You want the visual, the motor, the auditory, and the gestures all coming together. Another familiar sequential phrases would be ready. PSAT. And then you said go, but you will hold back and say ready. And he'd say set, go, you want him to try to produce those to. Syllables or two words. Back-to-back Or you could say Juan. And then you look at him and expect him to fill in the rest two, three, right? And you put up your fingers, you give them the, gestural cues. You give them the visual facial cues. It's all about pulling him in and enticing him to be a co-operative participant. Expect him to engage And then you could also make up your own cute little phrases at home during your daily routine, and then say them over and over again. Whenever you're doing that routine. And I used to do this and it makes a huge difference. I can't tell you, The families that dive into all of this corny stuff. And the families that just kind of sit back and let him figure it out. And it's just so much less stressful and fun to watch him or her just take the ball and run with it. Get him involved. It's just easier, There's more work involved. There's more mental kind of planning for you, mom, mostly, but dads too. And it always reminds me. And especially as I was putting these episodes together. There's a Les brown quote, where he says, If you do what is easy, your life will be hard. But if you do what is hard. Your life will be easy. And it's often, Shared around personal development or professional development. And we say, getting an education is hard. Learning a new skill. As hard exercising regularly is hard. Eating healthy is hard. Sleeping at the same time every day and getting your seven or eight hours. A day is hard. Right. But these are good habits. And it's hard in the beginning, but then the, the benefit on the other side, Right that you have that education that you, you have a healthy body. You have a clear mind every morning to go to work. Uh, or, or to be present with your family, these good habits. Take time to build up front. And then there's a commitment. Right. And we have to plan. We have to schedule, we have to put in effort. And so I believe this. Message. is effective with child development and parenting. Right. We have to put in the work upfront in these first 3, 5, 6 years. And I'm always saying, you know, our goal is to see your seven. Year old or your eight year old. Happy and willing and embracing literacy and penmanship and playing games and sleeping well at night and being a good eater. And. Telling funny jokes and.'cause that's, that's what we're striving for, but we have to do this work upfront. That does take. Energy and emotional commitment and, carving time out of your day. But if we do that, Then we just reap the benefits on the other side. And, and I just think it's. It's what. We're supposed to do as mamas. That that's our role that we've stepped into this. And let us take the full responsibility and guide him or her through this beautiful developmental process. Whether it's learning to crawl and walk and run and skip and talk and eat and play. And all of these things that we talk about here So automatic speech, can be carved through books and songs. And when it's in context, Even through your daily routine. Then it makes sense to them, right? Every time you're changing his diaper, you say the same thing, poopy. Yeah, ki. Or by, by diaper. Or, you're cleaning up after lunch. And you're put things in the trash. In the trash. Nap can. or clean up, clean up again, building your routines, that it just helps them. Especially with, with imitation, but that choral singing, right? They start to say it with you. And that's giving support. That's part of our biologies that will sing along. Right. We all sound better in a chorus than when we speak our sing by ourselves. Right. And there was even, um, for years and years and years. One of my favorite toys is Mr. Potato head and his whole family. Right. I have Mr. And Mrs. And I have baby potato heads. Um, And whenever I was trying to put his arm and, or his ear. And I would pretend that it would be difficult. And I'd say, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. And I can't tell you how many, two, and three-year-olds to say wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Or when they're doing a puzzle, right. And you're trying to figure, which is the top or the side or whatnot. And it's, it's just so sweet too. To be able to lead them and, and to watch them relax and to using speech and language purposely and playfully and confidently. And that's our goal. All right, so be creative. Be playful. Be present and that's key. And maybe that could be our, all of our goals for this 2024 is to be present right. Now I've left these last two at the end for a reason, because I typically use them as a last resort. And usually I use them with slightly older kids with three or three and a half. Now you could kind of look at it and say, wow, I, you know, I need to do something. My child is reaching his third birthday and I need to move that needle. but I'm, just going to outline them here. And you be the judge always go back and look at the record sheet that you've been keeping and you decide where your child sits and then what you can do. Playfully to build them. So number nine would be to try what we call holistic phrases. If your toddler is really struggling with putting two syllables together. And I did talk about what a holistic phrase was. and it basically means that, I do it right. He thinks of that as one whole word. And so we want to kind of break it down for him. I can do it right. but if we want to extend his verbal utterance, then we could start using those holistic phrases that he's kind of quote, unquote memorized. as a rule. I don't model these very often, unless I feel like I'm not getting anywhere else, but truth be told. Songs and repetitive expectant books. a lot of situational made up phrasing like that. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle really can move the needle. But if you feel like you want to, expand and build upon. That holistic phrase, then it might be a decent place to play around with. and it could also mean that we're looking at someone, your child who has a true speech and articulation deficit, uh, motor planning, weakness that is interfering with him being able to sequence these on his own. Right. And that, that could be a whole nother episode. But I wanted to include these just in case you find yourself there, or perhaps you're already in therapy and your therapist is trying these. I always say go back to number one and work through the first eight steps. Because that's really important, especially if you have a two or a two and a half or a three-year-old. But as I mentioned in the first episode of the series, Number one. I think it was number 69, sometimes children with significant motor planning issues will imitate. this holistic phrase, And like I said, it could be. It could become part of their core vocabulary list. And if they're just one or 18 months or even 24 months, you can use it as a vocabulary, single word. But it would be like, I did it. Or I got it. Or here you go. See ya. Or where to go, or a lot of toddlers will say what that, what that, so he doesn't think of it as what is that right? Or if he says no way, you know, again, these are a lot of social. it's pretty automatic. Oh man. Or, the classic, gimme five, give me five. Right. With kids like this, I also will try some funny novel sequence patterns. And it might be a little bit generational. So, over my 35 years of practice, I've seen a lot of little kids. Use Ooh, yuck. Or they say, oh, oh, SpaghettiO. Or they might say, Ooh, see dupe. C or oopsy Daisy, And that might come from my generation. I'm not sure, but I have seen a number of sweet little, you know, two, two and a half year olds use that on a regular basis and the parents will come back and report that. my mom or her grandmother saw, heard her say that. And she's like, I never say that that's got to come from Aaron. But the key here is that we want to help them. Move down that sequential pattern, To build that motor load in his mouth. Right. And it's all about practice. So keep in mind that these, especially these last nine and 10 are very common with a younger child. So I'm not doing anything that is off the beaten path, right. Or off the typical. Benchmark it's just for a younger speech child, right? So at 10, 12, 14 months, they will say see you later. Or I got it. Or up. Oh, SpaghettiO, that's pretty common, very age appropriate. But when you have a two and a half year old, Then it's just a younger tool to use we try to nurture him further on down the motor planning continuum. And then the final one for this list of 10. Would be number 10 to use carrier phrases. And this is also meant, as I indicated earlier as a later tool, that we would use simple phrases with the same words at the beginning is caring. Hence the name carrier phrase. So that then your toddler would finish it and generate that single word at the end. For example, you would say things like. There's ah, Pumpkin Or I C a. Brown bear but these carrier phrase, like I like bananas. Again, I would use. Toys or a book or real life objects. if you're eating something and you say, oh, I like, and you point to the banana. Right. And he fills it in and hopefully he'll begin to repeat the whole phrase. I like bananas. Or give me. Milk, Whatever is happening in real time. Now, like I said earlier, I don't begin with carrier phrases and. I have found a lot of speech pathologists will mistakenly. Especially if they've worked with older kids, say they were in a. In a preschool setting or they're in a kindergarten public school setting. And then they'll use these carrier phrases with that two year old. It's not appropriate for a two year old. if someone is approaching their third birthday and you've tried your best. One through eight, then you might want to get the engine going with these carrier phrases. But, I think it's a mistake of any speech therapist that would be given there. and I think it's just kind of out of, lack of experience or ignorance of what. The motor planning. Hierarchy is. I would go back to number one and, look at what is my list? Where are the grammatical. categories, where are the syllabus structure, And really. Start to build with purpose and with intention. and the reason is, is these carrier phrases don't have a lot of meat to them. They don't have a lot of meaning, and it's really kind of used as a robotic or something that is not really purposeful. Right. And, so you have to just be really mindful, but I, I wanted to throw it in there because it is a tool, especially teachers will use this or babysitters or a preschool teacher thinking that, oh, he's starting to talk and phrases like, I want apple, I want book. I want shoes and now he's just. Using it. as a rote memorized phrase, right. That doesn't really carry a lot of meat or intention. It's not communicative. and we can talk about that in another episode of, how creating some of these habits are not necessarily good linguistic acquisition for lack of better word, it's not natural, right? It, and that's what we're striving for for your two and your three and your four year old to be natural and fluid and comfortable. And to have that, that ebb and flow of language, knowledge, both expressively, how he or she speaks to you and, and to the family members and then how well he's able to process it in real time. Taking in language in that give and take right. So. I do, as I said, I have that checklist down in the description. That you can click and get a copy. and I would love your feedback. Let me know if it's helpful. Uh, I know that delayed milestones are hitting those milestone markers are a big worry to you that it's always popping up on moms top 10 issues. That keeps her up at night. And I want you to take advantage of this checklist and take advantage of. All of this information that I shared with you, because like I said, even if you're really, really concerned, and you're thinking about picking up that phone, or if you've already, on a waiting list, are you having an, an evaluation scheduled? You want to do something now? You don't want to sit back. and I'm sharing these tools with you that you can really start to implement. And don't be afraid. And you're not going to do anything wrong or bad you, if anything, just meet them where they are and you practice your play skills. You practice your leadership skills, you practice your. Your ease with just seeing these silly nursery rhymes and reading the book for the hundredth time. It's okay. Just relax and let it go. I don't want you to worry. I don't want you to feel uncertain, right? Because that, that guilt or shame of like, oh my God, I don't know how to help my little baby. He's struggling. As I mentioned in the last episode. you. Can put your name on the wait list. That you can join my free Facebook group and we can start talking about these things and we can peel back the layers together. Right. you can also put your name because you're interested in joining a parent coaching that I'm starting in early 2024 with, small groups of six or eight parents just like you. And we can do it together side by side. Check down below in the description. put your name there. let's, let's embrace your role. as the new mama let's embrace your. You're understanding that you're open to learning how to play with your kid. You're open to understanding how the speech developmental process works. it's not that complicated. There's just a lot of little. Bells and whistles that. Can make it. More effective and that's what it is. I know a lot of you are already spending quite a bit of time with your little one. And there's so much to do, especially this time of year. So relax a little bit. maybe make a few recordings and you can look at it after the holidays, but, I know that you really want to move the needle and, we can use these types of secrets and other things that I've shared with you on this episode to really, really make a difference. and I'm just excited to do it with you. And, and that's my biggest gift for you. All this holiday spirit is that. There's so much possibility out there and there's so many things that we can implement to really get your little guy, your little gal back on track. So he is thriving and he's enjoying this beautiful world that we live in kind of crazy sometimes, but also pretty dang remarkable. So I'm excited for 2024. Click down below, get on the wait list, get the free PDF, record system and let's do it together. Okay. God bless. And I'll see. In next episode.