Everyday Trick to Make Words STAND OUT for Your Toddler

In this episode of Talking Toddlers, we dive into a powerful strategy developed by the Hanen Centre, known as the 4 S’s, that can effortlessly support your child’s early language development. 

Designed with new parents in mind, this episode explores how you can make words stand out during everyday activities, turning simple moments into rich learning opportunities.

The 4 S’s—Say Less, Stress, Go Slow, and Show—provide an easy-to-implement approach to help your toddler grasp new words and concepts with ease. 

Whether you're playing, reading, or just going about your daily routine, these techniques can seamlessly fit into your day, ensuring your little one is on the path to strong communication skills.

Tune in to discover how these small, intentional changes can make a big difference in your toddler’s language journey, empowering you to support their development confidently from the comfort of your home.

It Takes Two To Talk

Building Vocabulary Guide

CONNECT WITH ERIN
www.HyerLearning.com

contact@HyerLearning.com

Join the Waitlist CLICK HERE

Transcript

0:00

for today's episode, I want to walk through these four S's that help you make words stand out. When you're washing the hands are doing these everyday activities, getting dressed brushing the teeth, getting ready for bed, saying, good night to the puppy, dog, whatever your tasks are. I want you to keep these four S's in mind.

Erin: 0:25

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.

1:08

How the heck do babies and toddlers even learn to speak. They hear a constant stream of talking all day long. How in the heck? Do they learn to focus and listen and then understand. The truth is that your infant child possesses this amazing yet fleeting gift. It's this ability to master language quickly in the scheme of things in just a few short months, at six months of age, your child can learn the sounds that make up English words and. If he's been exposed French and German all at the same time. And he has the ability to really pick up unique acoustic properties of each of those languages and actually. Any language across the world. That's why we refer to them as citizens of the world at birth, their brain is wired to decode any language. But then by age three, your toddler can converse. With you as a parent or a playmate, or even a stranger with complete articulation and diction and grammar and understanding. He can share. He can do this, give and take this turn-taking hate. Can have a conversation, tell a story all in the matter of 36 months. And the truth is I'm still blown away after nearly four decades of studying early child development, specifically speech and language. So, how does your little baby, your toddler go from, random babbling to speaking in these fully articulated words and sentences in a matter of few years, this mastery actually occurs much more quickly than any complex skill that us as human beings are expected to master in the course of our lifetime. And it's only been in the past decade or so that neuroscientists have begun to get a picture of what's happening in your baby's brain during this learning process. So as he moves from this gurgling newborn into this wonderfully engaging youngster, we can see inside the brain and how it wires itself. Through life experience to master human communication. And the truth is, as you can see, it's not an easy task. And this is reason. Number one that I began to study. Speech and language and how the brain learns to learn. I've always wondered. do babies even think and how do they think they don't. I have a native language yet in those first 6, 8, 10, 12, even 18 months. Right. It's kind of mind boggling in my opinion, to really look and watch it unfold. And so I'm sure you've got to be asking some of these same questions. Am I doing enough to help this process? Am I using my time wisely? Am I focusing on the right things? Is he making these neural connections through everyday? Experiencing. Experiences or am I missing something? And so I don't want you to jump ahead and think. Through all of the self doubt, but I I'm sure as a new mom, we all ask ourselves these questions from time to time. And it is a huge milestone. So when we look at the first words, somewhere along his first birthday, or how many words does he have at 18 months or 24 months? Does he know his colors or can he count to 10? What about the ABCs? Is that even relevant? I'm going to shine in this episode. A little inside secret. Some of that is relevant. Some of it's not. But here's the bottom line. Until your child learns to interact with others. Not just do, but with others, There's very little chance that he will begin using speech and talking with ease or competently. At this light speed that's required, right. When you think of. An 18 month or 24 month, just putting a few words together and then having a three-year-old have a full-fledged conversation. That to me is lightning speed. And I know it might be hard to hear at first. And sometimes it might be even more difficult to believe, but in my 35 plus years of practice and lots and lots of study, I've never stopped studying because science and research and technology has allowed us to really dig deeper and understand better. But. Your baby, if he has difficulty engaging, I say this over and over and over again. Or if he has difficulty understanding much of what you say, even in just every day. Activities like getting dressed or washing up or eating or going to the playground. If he has trouble understanding. Simple words or simple phrases, then you must consider making a major pivot. Because social interaction is truly the foundation before meaningful language can blossom. And what I mean by this is, remember we have these two columns, these two major pillars, receptive language. Which is understanding. And taking in language, right? Coding. Our spoken native tongue. And then expressive language, which is speaking and talking, that's called encoding. Right? How do I take. Put it out into the world. But understanding or receptive language is the foundation. Not that he's not, or she's not trying to verbally. Communicate with his gurgles and his coups and his cries and his babbles and his first words.'cause they do. Overlap one another, but receptive language, that social connection is critical at that foundation. So even with a child who has a handful of words, or even a dozen words, Uh, unless he or she. Really has a desire and the ability to connect with you, the primary caretaker, the primary person in his or her life. In a wide variety, probably hundreds of different shared experiences. With some mutual enjoyment. Then his chance of truly mastering this wonderful gift called human communication. Can be suspect can be at risk. And so what my purpose today is really giving you a really concrete strategy to use to help move him through this process, right. To help build that connection and create an environment that really fosters or facilitates and supports him taking in. And understanding what this human language is all around him and then engaging with you. So we're going to cover today, what I often refer to as kind of basic speech therapy, 1 0 1. Right that you can take with you starting at the end of this session or at the end of this episode and easily implement in your home through everyday activities. And as we walk through this, you'll probably think to yourself, well, this is pretty much common sense, but as I said in my years of practice, I think it's easily forgotten. We, we are inundated with technology or, you know, fancy games and gadgets, or screen times and apps, which. I am working diligently on an episode that really talks about that. but I want to give you an easy tool. That's been around I don't know, 20, 30 years. I've used it. Both with parents and therapists that I've been training and, new graduate students. But it comes from. A company called the Hannon center. That I believe is Canadian based. But it was published back in the late 1990s, 98 99. It's called. It takes two to talk a practical guide for parents of children with language delays. And I will have a link down below, but I think it's in the fifth edition at this time. It's incredibly user-friendly and both new therapists, old therapists, moms, and dads and preschool centers use it widely, but this guide was designed to help parents use everyday situations to build human communication, right. Talking and listening. And I've always loved Their title of it takes two to talk because that's true. But the strategy once we kind of walked through these four. sections it's called the four S's right. But the strategy is almost intuitive in nature. Because. It uses the framework of how our brain acquires or learns the native language. Right. It's wiring. His or her, her brain through your experience, your words. And as I said, babies are considered citizens of the world because they're ready. They're actually wired to learn any language. And in another episode, I'll, I'll cover more of the science behind this, but for today, I wanted to give you these four SS. This framework or strategy to help you. No matter where your child is on this process, whether they're six months or 16 months or 26 months. You can always check in with these four S's to see where are you in helping build his vocabulary, as well as that, that engagement, that dyad. So I have mentioned before, and I'm sure many of you have heard this phrase parent ease or in the former days it was mother ease, but the truth is research has demonstrated us that even very young children ages four and five, we'll often use this parent ease when they first engage with a baby, right. With a little. Baby. Who's not quite talking, right. Because somehow in our human nature, I think again, God was brilliant in wiring us. We know intuitively what to do. And to break. Our speech and language down as a model to help them these new little brains, six months, 12 months, 14 months. To wire itself. Right. And. And we've also learned in the last 20 plus years that it moves this parentees or motherese, or Humanyze I guess we can now call it. Across cultures. So it's not just English or French or Spanish. Um, it really. Speaks to the human nature that, that deep rooted down deep that we understand babies and toddlers need modification. Uh, in those first 6, 12, 18 months to help them decipher or interpret the words that are coming out of our mouth. So no matter what the language is, keep in mind that these strategy, these proven techniques really help. And as I said, this guidebook that the Hannon center uses, uh, it's kind of expensive. I think it's 50, 60 bucks, but I have, had many, many copies over the years. and I think it's, as I said in the fifth edition, the key here is to really help us as the primary caretaker, right? The primary facilitator in there they're learning is to highlight the words that you and I are targeting. that's why it's, looked at as helping the word stand out. And just a side note. We have also learned. That a good target is for babies or toddlers Birth to three. For them to hear 21,000 words a day and that's quote unquote average and remember averages in that bell curve. Is what we're we're shooting for. Some will have more, some will have less, but 21,000 words per day seems like quite a lot of talking. And if you look at your baby is awake, perhaps 10 hours a day, that means 21. A hundred words, 2,100 words per hour. And you're thinking, oh my gosh, what, how do I do that? A long time ago. I, actually counted the words that I would use if I was helping the little one wash his hands. And I want to just kind of walk through that with you. Because it's important for us to realize how much. Shaping or coding needs to go on throughout your, everyday through your everyday experiences with your little one to help them build. This mastery of human communication. In this case, it would be English. Right? So Let's imagine you washing Your little 10 month old or even 15 month olds hands. And you'd say. Okay, let's wash your hands. This is the cold water. Oh no, no, no. That's the hot water. Let's use cold water. We'll put a little soap on your Palm. Yup. Rub rub, rub. You are rubbing your hands together. Ooh, I see lots of bubbles. Let's get the back of your hands. Good. Okay. It's time to rinse. Rub rub rub under the water. All right. Let's dry. Now that's just a simple little scenario. But if you count them up, it's about 60, 70 words. So your toddler needs 21. Hundred words every hour. and you're thinking, how the heck can I do that? That's why I continually say through everyday experience when you're dressing. When you're washing their hands, when you're eating, when your putting groceries away, when you're shopping, when you're getting into the car and out of the car. It doesn't have to be nonstop, but language that's attached to each and every activity. So for today's episode, I want to walk through these four S's that help you make words stand out. whatever your tasks are. I want you to keep these four S's in mind. So the first one. Would be SAY LESS. especially when they're six months and 12 months and 16 months. Use short, simple sentences with proper grammar. So we're not talking about baby talk here, We're talking about. simplifying your language. So the important words, the important target words are popping out. So instead of saying, it's time to clean up because we have to go to the store before you pick up the brother at camp, let's go. You know, that's a lot of language, a lot of direction. A lot of noise. So simplify it by saying let's clean up. Let's get into the car. Let's find your shoes. We have to pick up brother. So it's clean up. Find shoes get in the car. Pick up brother. Those are the concrete messages that we want them to focus on. Right. I don't want you to get cryptic. Where we forget about the grammar. Because these beautiful babies and toddlers. They can learn single words at the same time that they're mapping the grammar structure for phrases and sentences as well. And so. Remember that when you say. clean up or we are cleaning up. So when we put ending clean or cleans or cleaning cleaned all of those endings, Make the word a little bit more complicated, right? So in the early stages, we're going to keep it uncomplicated. But at the same time, we want to make sure the grammar is proper. To follow our rules of language. This also gives them the context or the background information so they can figure out. What these new words are attached to or what, even these less familiar words, because we have to do a lot of reinforcements. So yesterday he may have understood window cell, but today he might need reinforcement. When you say. Put the pencil on the window cell. just keep in mind that we want to say less, but always focus on proper grammar. Right? Keep it simple. Keep it concrete. I think of one concept at a time, especially in these early. 8 10, 12, 14 months. And then if you do have a child who doesn't seem to be picking up vocabulary at 18 months or 24 months or 26 months, then you want to think about how complex is my language. And can I change it up a bit, especially when it's just him and me together. So as we unfold, these next three, S's in this strategy from the Hanen Centre. that they publish this, wonderful guide guidebook. But as we walk through these next three, S's, you'll see how they all kind of fit together. So the first one is to say less use short, simple sentences with proper grammar. The next one is to STRESS THE IMPORTANT PARTS. So we want. Again, to focus on perhaps The noun and the verb, right? The action, or maybe the preposition, But we want to make the important words, stand out with your voice and you can emphasize the new word or the less familiar word with an animated voice or by changing the volume or the tone or the pitch. Right? So for example, if you're playing with cars, And you say, oh, the car is going fast. Fast. So you can say it fast first, and then you can draw out this. To bring attention to it. To make it more interesting to peak his or her interest. And it's not just a lot of noise in the background and we're not just jabbing away. Right. But you can pull it out and repeat it. Oh, the car is so fast. So certain sound effects and words that are naturally exaggerated. And I'll have a link down below because I have. A PDF on play words and sound, environmental sounds and animal sounds and whatnot that really help zone in. Cause those are counted on the words too. It's not just real words like table and chair and baby and milk. It's, oink, oink and move. Those are words. If your, if your little one is using them to represent the object, right. So look down below. For the links that I will have attached. But the whole idea is that. Some of these words naturally stand out so they will catch your child's interests. That's why nursery rhymes. R so repetitive and they have fun rhyming. Rhythms to them. And they have a lot of animal sounds and noise expressions, right. it peaks their interest and it's more likely that your little one will Ben take notice and that remember that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to focus on what's going on right in front of me. What's what is important? And then. Map out the sounds and connect it with the environment. So it's at it will help them increase their chances of remembering and then trying to imitate it or saying on their own later on. So the first to say less, remember short, simple sentences with proper grammar. Number two stress, the important parts. That's what will help them I help these words stand out with your voice, right? Use that. And then number three to SLOW DOWN. And that means. That we speak slower and. Use pauses, right. Just like I did there. So I want to caution you to not go too slowly, We don't ever want to lose the natural rhythms. So that again, that's why rhyming or singing. Where we can build in the natural rhythm. We're not talking staccato like, or like a robot, But. That, that parent ease that I mentioned before that works in those first six months. But once they really start babbling, And trying to use. The native sounds in their language, then you want to shape it with real words, But present it slowly and present it with a lot of white space. So they have time to really process it. And code it into their neurological maps. And pausing gives the short periods for them then to formulate some kind of response and their response doesn't always have to be verbal. It could be gestures. It could be eye contact. It could be a smile. Or an action, right. To follow through with whatever. Oh, jump. Jump the cow was jumping. Right. And so now little Susie or Johnny wants to jump just like the cow or pretend to sleep, sleep. Or fall down, fall down. Right. So they can then IMITATE and follow along with the action. Or have a gesture, So keep in mind, we want to say less. We want to stress the important parts, and then we want to slow down. But always keep that, that natural rhythm going. We don't want it to sound too, too artificial. We just want to, and you don't do this all the time. And, and if I wasn't clear on this in the beginning, I want to clarify. That. these techniques or strategies are used, especially when it's one-on-one. Say you're in tummy time. Or. the bath time and it's just you and your little one, or you're getting him dressed. Or you're sharing a book together or it's just you and him, Playing with the farm set or you're making dinner for the baby or whatever the deal is, or digging in the dirt or pretending to plant flowers. And it's your in this space, this auditory space, this gestural space, this language based learning space. Together. It's not when, you're all sitting down in the, at the dinner table and there's a lot of commotion going around or there's a lot of different language at different levels going around. You're really isolating these learning opportunities. And I think that's key here that. You want your little one to have the big, rich language that he's going to hear the adults all day. Right, but you also want to give him the opportunity to have. These four S's these strategies to be used to help him target specific words because we're building that receptive language and expressive language from the bottom up brick by brick. Right. And it does happen quickly over time. Right? Like I said, that first year, the first 24 months, and then by 36 months, they have full conversations. But in order to do that, you can't just think that they're going to wake up on their second birthday and have. Phrases at their fingertips. Right. So these first three, say less stress, the important parts, slow down. Without losing the natural rhythm. And number four is to SHOW WHAT IT MEANS. Show what these words through actions, like I said before about sleep. Or fall down or jump or eat. Or per like a cat, You can also use gestures like to shrug your shoulders on. I don't know. What do you think? Um, you can have a happy face, sad face, close your eyes when you go to sleep or all of these gestures. And I've talked a lot about 16 gestures by 16 months, those are precursors to verbal talking. You can also use pictures in a book. Like I said, And I think I'm planning a whole episode on the pros and cons to, to flashcards. And when to introduce them and how to use them, because there's a lot of tricks that you can use, but. Doing, rote kind of flashcards is not, I think, appropriate with a two year old or even a three-year-old. But we can talk about how to use them smartly in your everyday. but by showing them what they mean, then they can see. Right. So not only. Do you, name objects like cup. And table and chair, and they can see that right. They can feel it. They can sit at it, they can touch it. But the actions are really important, And the gestures and putting it together In synchronicity with what comes out of my mouth. Right. But we're also really, really honing in on building that understanding because like I said, There is this hierarchy, this continuum of how language is built upon. And, and I keep going back to the house metaphor, right? It, we need that strong foundation before we can put up the walls. So a typical developing child. And I use that phrase on purpose because we've. Been studying early speech and language development for at least a hundred years. But these last 20, 30 years. With new technologies and new ways of measuring what they're thinking as well as what they're focusing on. And then how do they acquire their speech? We we know that understanding comes before they can imitate or speak independently. And so that's the key takeaway here is that these four S's To help words stand out Is that understanding really has to be strong before they start to imitate or practice on their own. And there's this whole process of what we call pruning and maybe many of you have heard that, but it's these babies, these citizens of the world are ready to learn any language. And I think if I. Remember correctly. I think there are literally 800 sounds that all the languages. Can produce Different sounds or what we call phonemes. But most languages I know for English have about 44, 40 to 45 sounds phonemes individual sounds that make up the words. And another episode, talk about how those sounds are mastered over time, but the hierarchy here is before you can get to those speech sounds those 44 sounds that are necessary in order to S. speak even at the single word level, let alone the phrases and sentences. We have to build that social interactive skills set, right. That human communication or human connection. I'm sorry. It's connection. And then there's that receptive language and then there's expressive language. And then I, as a speech therapist would then look at speech intelligibility. So. that new two year old is talking, but he might not be, he's only about 50% intelligible, meaning. uncle Joe who only sees him once or twice a year probably only understands 50% of what he says, mom or dad, whoever spends the most time. Typically we'll understand a lot more 75, 80% of what they say. For that typical average two year old, right? And so it's not until well beyond conversation, say a three-year-old is talking at the conversation level, but they're only 50% intelligible And some, some people get kind of uncomfortable with the word intelligibility, but that just means, you know, how clear is their speech can, no matter how fast they're talking or what they're talking about. That uncle Joe, who only sees them once in a while. Can really understand and, and a three-year-old should be about 80, 90% understood. So let's just kind of walk through how, for this number four, showing. How you can show your baby or your toddler throughout the day, right? Because there's different ways that you can point to objects, right. Drink from your red cup. And you're pointing to the red cup, not the green cup, not the yellow cup, Here's your red cup drink. And then you can even demonstrate drinking or, hold up the object next to your face. And again, any decent therapist knows this. It's quite, innate as well that, if we're holding up, say a sock, right. I'm. Putting up to my face and I'll say, oh, sock, here's your blue sock. Let's put it on your foot. Right. And so. Getting him to look at you, look at the object and then the request, put it on your foot. Give me your foot right. Or you can point to the yellow bus across the room. Go get your yellow bus. I need yellow bus. And so then there's gestures and actions. So you can point or hold things up, gestures and actions again, showing them what the words mean. Raise your arms up when you're asking. Oh, do you want to go up. Up. Or shake your head? No. When you say no, no bed, no bed. Or shiver, Oh, are you cooled? And you shiver cold. Cool. Cold, Bringing attention to what you're doing. What you're saying, what you're asking. Or rub your tummy and ask. Ooh. Are you hungry? Are you hungry? Tommy is hungry. Maybe your tummy growled, right? Um, Or put your finger to your lips to model, to be quiet. If you're walking into church, or if you're walking into a quiet classroom, right. Or if another baby is sleeping or if the dog is sleeping and you don't want him to wake up or daddy sleeping on the, on the couch. Or if you're during play right during putting the baby to bed or putting the cowboy to bed or whomever you're playing with. shrug your shoulders. Like I said, sometimes you just like. Think right by tapping your, your temple. I can't tell you. Uh, hundreds, if not thousands of kids I've taught them or they've modeled after me, they've imitated my model. I guess that's the better way of saying it. To to think right before they picked something. Hmm. Which color square do I want? I am. And it's, it's getting them to. Listen and focus on us; relate it to whatever we're doing in the environment and making it interesting. Right. And that's the whole key. So, as I said, pictures, you can definitely use books, but flashcards, I think is a whole different ball game, especially when we're talking about an 18 month old or a 24 month old. And I will do a special episode just on flashcards. Like I said, the pros and cons, but you know, If you have an 18 month old or a 24 month old. I wouldn't really use them as flash cards. Right. You can look at them. Perhaps and help sort or match them. I think this is a better one to match them with the objects. Right. The picture of a cow, where's the cow in the array of toys. Right? Go find the cow. Or you can draw us a few out of a hat and new say. Um, you know, maybe it's a boy who's jumping. And you say, now I'm going to jump you jump right. We're imitating showing him imitation. Right? So there are a lot of very creative ways that you can use. Flash cards that are not a drill based kind of thing. And as I said, I'll, I'll do something very, very specific for that. But the idea of pictures and flashcards is to expand your vocabulary right into use it. Or to use a broader base than just your everyday objects that you have at your house. And you can also look at different verbs and adjectives and you can build the, the the depth of your vocabulary. But of course you can do this with books. because I think it's also important. With children. You know, up until their second birthday, but even up to their third birthday. That you do the same as we do with conversational speech, right? When, when it's just you and him. Then you can use books for targeted vocabulary. But you can also read lengthy more robust language-based books, the true story behind it and because you want. What I refer to is that top down and bottom ups. So the top down is the rich whole language that they get. And they're not understanding each and everything, but they're getting it in this, this richer context. And you're building that acquisition of language to And then you have the building blocks, the single words. Whereas nouns and verbs and adjectives and, and whatnot. And so. The idea is also that you can, bring these books and if you build a healthy relationship with books, then he's going to, or she will then be able to use a book to entertain themselves in the backseat of the car or at the restaurant or when you're waiting in the grocery store. And so that's something else I think is really important that in this modern day that we talk about how. Books. have unfortunately been kind of pushed to the, to the side and we look at screens and as I've shared with you numerous times on this podcast, that that is incredibly detrimental to children up until their, their third birthday in my best professional opinion. And again, we can talk about. Pros and cons and to be strategic, right. But for these this strategy of the four S's. let's just kind of round out these, these four S's to help really. Make words, target words that you're helping build those initial vocabularies really stand out. So when you're doing more, one to one, Say less, But always use proper grammar, write short, simple sentences stress, the important parts, The nouns, the verbs, and maybe the adjective. The big car, Or the red car. Or the dirty sock, right. Slow down. So you have. Space between the words, but also space between the concepts. and you don't want to lose that natural rhythm though. And then number four is to really show meaning. So be engaged and it's not just talking at him or over him or around him or through him or across the room. It's really sharing the experience. And if we go back to the beginning where I was talking about how the true inside secret is that until your little one learns to interact with you or with his primary caretaker. You dad. Grandma. There's very little chance that he's going to begin to talk with ease and fluidity and competence. Because there's so much growing and wiring that needs to take place. That requires social interaction. Right. And that's that foundation. And so. This episode, I wanted you to have a quick takeaway but I wanted you to be able to start to listen to yourself and say, huh? How do I show up and use language as a tool to engage with him? And it's not just the spoken language is the nonverbal language. And, through your actions and gestures and books and demonstrations and all of that. So there is another kind of. underlying piece to all of this and it's talking about repeating, and I think that that's. An important thing also for new moms to realize that kids need to hear the same thing over and over again. Hence, reading the same books and the same nursery rhymes and the same songs and dance. But that's really laying that foundation too. And we can talk more specifically about how to use repetition as a tool or as a strategy that will really help build his or her independence. So let's just put it all together the four S's can be used through everyday activity, right? Here's four sample say you're, pretending to make a pizza with Play-Doh Or even a real pizza with individual pizzas. We used to do that a lot with my daughter. So say less and use short grammatical sentences, like let's make a pizza. And then see if they respond right. And you can stress. Uh, by emphasizing. I'm hungry. You wanna pizza? and then speak slower. So say something let's make a pizza and then wait until they respond. Give them that white space, right? Wait for his reaction. And then you can show them that you can hold up the material. The little pizza dough we used to have, individual pizza, doughs, and a package of pepperoni and a package of cheese and hold it up to your face and say, oh, what's first the dough. Or the cheese. And, again, getting them to attend, getting them to listen. And. And bringing it into real time. Well, where you can open up the fridge and say, oh, we need. the pizza dough. Can you find it? Pizza dough. And you can point a bottom shell for the top shelf or in the drawer. Again, showing them he's listening. He's following your direction. He's engaged with wanting to make this with you. And then of course, after you make this. Then you sit down and you share it together. and even if it's pretend with Play-Doh, like I said, you. You look at your toy. Oh, what do we need? We need the dough. Where's the dough. Where's the roller. And pretend to make, your pizza and then sit down and pretend to eat it. All of this is putting it together and he's, or she is practicing through play or real life daily activities. So the goal is building the vocabulary, building that understanding first, right? You don't need elaborate toys. You can use everyday activities. Getting dressed, taking a bath, going to the park. Avoid flashcards as long as possible, I'd say up to three. And as I said, I'll have a separate episode where I can talk about the pros and cons and how to use them strategically. Right? You want to be smart? Um, and always lean into everyday activities that you have to get done. If you want those 2100 words an hour. Or 21,000 words a day, then talk to him or her during everyday life events. And I do have a couple of links down below. One is getting ready to talk the 10. top essentials that you, your child needs to have before. They're ready to talk. And then I also have a guide on building vocabulary from single words to two words, phrases, and There is a hierarchy. A continuum of flow in this process of learning. And if we jump too far ahead, Then we might miss something and I always want you to. Be able to step back and look, where are we today? And are there gaps that I need to fill in? Or do I need to kind of, um, push it along? So I will also have the link down below to the Hannon center. If you want that guide book, I highly recommend it, but. I will pull my favorite elements. from it, one is these four S's right. To make the words stand out. I appreciate you spending your precious time with me. And I look forward to the next episode. So remember, eat together, talk together and play together. God bless. Take care.