Is My Child on Track? The 10 Essential Skills For Talking

Did you know that talking doesn’t start with words? 

Before a child ever says “mama” or “dada,” they go through critical developmental stages that pave the way for speech. 

In this episode of Talking Toddlers, we’re diving into the Top 10 Essential Skills For Talking —the must-know skills that indicate a child is on the right track for language development.

We’ll cover everything from sensory awareness and social connection to gestures, turn-taking, and play—all fundamental to helping your baby or toddler communicate. 

Whether you’re wondering “Is my child on track?” or looking for ways to encourage early language skills, this episode will give you practical insights to support your little one’s journey to talking.

🎧 Tune in now and learn how to set the stage for your child’s first words!

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Transcript

0:05

By their second birthday, they'll feed the baby and birth the baby and bathe the baby, and then put the baby to bed. And those are all the steps that they do every night with you, right? They've, they've lived it, they've seen it, they've felt it. Now they're practicing it, and then

Erin: 0:24

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 gonna 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.

1:06

If you've ever wondered, what should I be doing before my baby actually starts talking? Then this episode is for you. We often focus on your child's first words as a major milestone, but the truth is speech doesn't just happen overnight. There are very critical foundational skills that set the stage for language development, and I often use that phrase speech language development, because it's a process, it's a building block system. So being able to understand these essential building blocks will only help you actively support your child's ability to learn how to communicate long before they actually say. Their first words typically around that first birthday. So welcome to Talking Toddlers, and I'm Erin, your host. I'm a speech language pathologist with over 35 years of experience helping families just like yourself. Navigate these early years, birth through three and beyond with confidence and intention and really knowledge to help keep them on track and moving forward. So in today's episode, we're going to dive into what I like to refer to as getting ready to talk. I've outlined. 10 top essentials that your child must have before those first words really kick in and we're gonna talk about sensory awareness, turn, taking play skills, gestures, and a lot more. By the end of this episode, you'll walk away with a much clearer, more practical view. And how can you nurture your baby's development and set him or her up for success? That's always our goal. plus I want to invite you to take advantage of my free guide that I have down below in the, episode descriptions, and it's the same title. Top 10 essentials before a child talks. And there I will outline everything that you and I will talk about in this episode. But it gives you a handy step-by-step format to look at and reference from day to day, week to week, month to month. And share it with others. Share it with your other family members, your, your parents, the grandparents, your babysitters. It's really important that we all get on the same page, so let's. Take a cook, a good look at the first one. And we start with sensory awareness because that really is one of the foundational pivotal building blocks that we need to look at as a new mom. So before. Any child can learn how to speak. They must first take the world in through all of their senses. And when we think about the five major senses, right, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling, all of those really help. Integrate knowledge or bits of information so they begin to understand the people versus the objects versus the activities. But by three to four months, give or take, babies are actively processing all of these sensory inputs at the same time. And so I know that I've even been caught at saying, oh, if we can just get through those first three months, those first six months, you know, that first year is just a big blur. But the truth is every one of these stages are important. And so we have to focus in on what's the most important. So then your little one can really. Build his internal system, so then he becomes independent and engaged with this outside world. But it's important that we help them. Your little ones recognize. Faces and be able to discriminate and detect different familiar voices, right? They begin to form early associations with their environment, with certain sounds, with certain faces, certain smells, like I said. And in a future episode, I will dive deeper into this whole sensory processing system because it is pivotal in, in allowing your child. To build his, his body, his mind, his his internal sense of self, and then everything else builds on top of that. But there's a reason why I put this as number one. It really helps with that attunement. Perhaps that's a term that you've used to get in tune with your newborn and your infant. Those first few months really set the stage for years and years to come. And yes, we can rectify things and go back and re restructure them, but it's always better to do it the first time around. Right? So. If a child, if your child struggles with sensory awareness or processing, processing is taking in this information, right? First they have to become aware and then what do I do with it? With the, the sounds and the visions and the smells and the tactile data that's coming at. But if they struggle, then they, your little one. Might have difficulty tuning in to speech and language,'cause that's a higher order skill. First, they have to kind of get acclimated and being able to physically feel comfortable in their own skin and tolerate. So then they can tune things out or put things in the background so then they can focus on, oh, I'm singing row, row, row your boat, or, oh. We're building these blocks together, so I need my time and energy to go here, and so I'm not distracted by background noise or background smells or itchy clothes or all of these other kinds of things, but I. It really is critical before they can really tune in and start practicing speech and language. And just as a side note, a fussy baby is usually trying to tell you something that something's wrong, whether it's with their gut or with the clothes that they're wearing or their digestive system or their, their head is kind of fuzzy. All these kinds of things. Yes, our babies are gonna fuss from here, from this time to that time. But in those first couple of months, as you know, you start to get in sync with each other and you, you mama and you dad, and grandparents start to differentiate those different cries that they mean different things. But if a child is. Repetitively fussy or chronically fussy, then they're really trying to give you a big message. So that's a red flag that you want to pay attention to. So the second. Key to building these, these preliminary skills before those first words kick in is the social connection. And again, all of these things overlap so long before words begin to emerge. Your baby needs to engage in social connection, and that's done through a lot of nonverbal, right? Smiling or turning away if they don't like something. But they are practicing their listening skills and their their first voicing, right? But as they do this, we have to reinforce it. So then they want to do it more and more with us. We're building that, those early, early interactions and like I I'm gonna say this over and over, it really is laying that foundation because language ultimately is social. Yes, we could talk to ourselves and yes, we could write to ourselves and that kind of thing, but the truth is it's really. Shared with other humans, and so it's important that your baby starts to understand, oh, I need to be an active participant in this dyad, right? So a baby who seeks out eye contact and really wants to respond with noise making and trying to get your attention. With the limited skills he has is beginning to learn that there is a back and forth rhythm to this relationship, this conversational relationship. And like I've shared before in the past, and I'll keep reiterating this, it usually happens by accident. In the beginning, those first couple of months, we reinforce the noises that accidentally on purpose come out and they might repeat it because it, it felt good in their throat or it drew attention to themself. They're like, oh, this voice is coming out of me. Right? But. It's really, um, I think sometimes misunderstood that the baby is repeating after us. And that's not true in those first couple of months. But you may have heard the, the term serve and return'cause that was a, a big, push with the pediatrics and early interventionists and, and all of that. But it. It really does give us a nice picture. If you think of tennis, you know, serve, and then we return, they make a noise or a gesture or a grunt or even anything by accident, we step in and reinforce that and, and. In order to elongate or pull out that turn taking you, we have to be in it with them. So you show them away and then they start to do that on purpose, right? So number three in this list of 10 would be turn taking skills. And you're thinking, oh, how does a baby four months, six months, do turn taking. Well, by then, they're really getting into the vibe that communication is a two-way street, and that I have to be a participant and I can get somebody's attention and I can hold somebody's attention, right? And all of this starts at two months and six months and eight months long before that first word really kicks in with intention. But babies naturally practice through all of these early games that we're very familiar with, right? Peekaboo, uh, ICU are so big, but these. Babbling and cooling exchanges, and there's a subtle difference between cooling are just those, ah, those nice, um, expression of vowel like sounds right, that are coming out sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident babbling is when you have a consonant and a vowel. Bababa boo boo boo mama, right? And so those are consonant vowels, but. Early on, we can start to share all of the different sounds and they're like, oh, I have control over my airflow. I can change the shape of my mouth. And a different sound comes out. And all of this is done through every day. Opportunities, right? When you're washing or feeding or just snuggling or wiping their face or waking them up. All of those things. But to encourage these interactions and then pause to see if your baby responds on purpose, right? And then you are giving them that opportunity. To then fill in the blank, right. And, and expand on this or give that different turn taking role. And and they do, they buy in pretty early on for six, eight months. Ah, I have to be an active participant. And that's what we're doing. We're pulling them in and. Engaging with intention. So be careful not to lower your expectations. And maybe he's a quiet baby, maybe she's just happy playing by herself and, and those moments are important. Don't get me wrong. They need to look at the fan or you know, just. Watch people go by or watch the doggy and be in their own head, right? That's really, really important. But you also have to snatch these few minutes here and longer minutes here where you're really engaging with them in everyday experiences. Like I said, it's not like you sit down and say, okay, we're gonna do speech therapy, right? We're going to. Take a bath and I'm going to engage with you. I'm gonna put you in the car seat and I'm going to take an extra 20 seconds and engage with you. I'm going to put your shoes on and give you an extra 20 seconds and engage with you. Right? So it's all these snatches of time that builds is cumulative. So the number four top essential skill that they have to have before their true words kick in. Is much of what we've been talking about. Attention. As well as joint attention, and maybe some of you understand the difference, but attention is, you know, focused in on you. Joint attention is when babies learn to focus, not just on me. Or an an object, but we share it. Like I point to the plane or I point to the puppy dog and they follow my point and I say, oh, look who's coming down the stairs. And I point, and it's, you know, maybe his big brother Johnny or something and coming down the stairs and we share what I say and what I'm pointing to and that. Object beyond us. So when a baby follows your gaze and looks at what you're pointing to, then that's a critical milestone and that really has to proceed. Spoken language and a lot of developmental specialists, speech language people, school-based people, pediatricians, they don't quite get that. And so if you have a late talker and they're not, you know, say they're two years old or two and a half, we have to make sure that there's a joint attention that we can share books or toys or if we go outside and play that they're in it. With me. And that's a critical piece to look at, to see where is my child on this developmental journey? Right? Without joint attention, you will most likely see that learning new words is tricky, right? Because they're not really connecting spoken language with objects and experiences, so they're still compartmentalized. And you might have a child who will say a few words. But he's not necessarily doing it to connect with you. So, mom, dad, grandparents, you can foster this by pointing things out often, right? Naming them and ensuring that your baby is. In it with you, right? Even if you have to turn their head and say, look, look, look, look and, or tap on the book or take, you turn their head and take their hands and you're pointing together, oh look, there is a plane in the sky, or a bird, or a balloon, or whatever you're trying to get. Engaged with, right? So joint attention is one of those critical milestones. Number five is receptive language. And a lot of parents will say to me, oh, he or she, they understand everything, and that might be true. It's hard to tease apart because I think sometimes as new moms, new parents, we step in quite a bit, but it is critical to understand that that understanding, right comprehension always comes before speaking. And so if you have a baby or a toddler who doesn't really follow simple directions or share books with you or. Really tries to look at what you are doing and then join, even if they're not saying a lot of things, you need to go back and make sure that receptive language or understanding is starting to kick in first. Right? So babies. Must comprehend words before they can produce it. And that makes a lot of sense if you think about it. But by the time they're six to nine months, give or take, they will most likely start to hear or turn when they hear their name out of all the noise in the room. They say, Susie. Susie. And that's important to them. So they've learned that primary word. And then usually around 12 months, that's usually when they can follow simple requests. Like, give me the ball, or, you know, where's your brother? Those kinds of simple things. And he can, you know, point to Johnny who's under the table or something. But, sometimes you're gonna be 10 months and they're gonna follow simple directions and sometimes it's, it's going to be 13 months, but, oh. That 12 months leading into that first birthday, they've had a lot of talking, a lot of engagement, a lot of purposeful playtime, and we're building receptive language. And then we'll talk about that speech and oral motor and all of that. But without strong, receptive language understanding, expressive language will most likely be delayed. So that's critical piece because all of these 10 items that I'm sharing with you, these are things that I look at when someone brings in their 14, 16, 18 month old. I wanna make sure all of these 10 are in place before I can expect them to start to imitate me, right? So you mama. I'm always talking to you first, right? Can boost this skill by narrating every day. And I'm sure most of you have heard about, narrate, narrate. It doesn't mean 24 7, but it means often, right? And if we engage in these interactive games, like when you're changing them, you say, Hmm, where's your nose? Hmm. You start asking them, and so they're listening with intention and then following suit, right? Or if you're washing their hands, where is the faucet? Or what do we do first? Right. And then they can show you, they can point, they don't actually have to say it just yet, but you are. You are giving them an opportunity to listen with intention and then follow along. Right? You could stand by the front door and this is always a good one. Hmm. Where's my coat? Or what do I need? Right. You already can stand in front of the dresser and say, where are my pajamas? Right, so you're always pulling them in. These are things that you have to do all day long, right? Feed them, dress them, wash them, put them to bed, wake them up. All of these, pull them into it. Don't just do it for them, and then hope that they'll start talking on their first birthday, right? It's all about building connection. Getting them engaged with you, enticing them to be an active participant and sharing in the moment. Right? So number six would be the play development. And that's a big area when I have to look at a slow talker or someone who mom is just asking, oh, I wonder where they are in this developmental journey of ours. I always look at where are they in their play skills?'cause there are definitely stages in play and it's important that we understand and not expect too much at the same time that we're using play as the best medium for your child to learn in. Right? That's the idea. And in. In the early months, babies, as you know, will explore the whole world through mouthing right, and, and grasping things. They don't always let go initially, but, and they shake things and so they're just have, they just have a very limited sphere. But they learn a lot with their hands and their mouth. And, and that is true in those first several months. But as they grow, as they progress, they begin to do more, external kinds of things. And they can stabilize their body and they can, you know, bang things or start to stack things. And they're using toys in more meaningful ways. Like later on, closer to 18 months, they'll start to pretend to feed a baby, right? Or drive a truck. And those one step pretending they'll do on themselves, and that's usually around 18 months, but. It's really important, and again, I don't think a lot of school people understand this. I don't think pediatricians understand this, but play skills and language really do develop together, and I. We have to look at at play is a representation of what they're thinking or feeling or wanting to do. Just like verbal words represent, when I say picture that word, picture represent the picture on the wall. Or if I look at and say, baby doll, that word baby doll is a representation, a oral representation of the baby doll that fell off the table. But the, so when we play through, when we act out, then that is representing, oh, I'm, you know, rocking the baby to sleep, or I'm driving the truck, or I'm talking on the phone, whatever the, the pretend play gesture is. But play therapy, and this is just a side note, when done. With intention is really where a good therapist will connect and create a plethora of true learning, right? I mean, I can really get kids through, you know, playing with Mr. Potato Head or playing with blocks or the farm set. You know, there's some basic skills that I can get a child to engage with me. And, and practice all the precursors to spoken language for 20 minutes or 30 minutes or 40 minutes, but it's really being in it with them. And keep in mind that imaginative play, right? Pretend play lays the groundwork for storytelling later on because. Around 18 months, like I said, they'll, they'll do one step, pretend like feeding the baby, and then they build on that. By their second birthday, they'll feed the baby and birth the baby and bathe the baby, and then put the baby to bed. And those are all the steps that they do every night with you, right? They've, they've lived it, they've seen it, they've felt it. Now they're practicing it, and then they'll be able to say it in sentence form. And so that's how the human, linguistic, cognitive processes mature over time. But play is really the critical medium in which your little ones learn, and, and we all do, right? If we want to learn how to play tennis or learn to play the piano, it's in play-based form, right? We have to practice and do it. But when we get into pretend play and imaginary play, don't rush it. Look at where their play skills are and say, okay, that's where they are. Let's start where they are and then build from there. Um, because I do think, again, I'm not really ragging on schools and pediatricians, but they don't. Really understand the subtle nuances. They understand the checklists, right, the milestones. But milestones are really just an introduction. It's supposed to, it's not an evaluation, it's not a measurement of any kind. It's really just supposed to open the door to have a conversation. you know, describe what your child's play skills are, right? But we don't want to rush it. Meet them where they are and build up from there and it's important to always keep in the back of your mind that there's a lot of learning and growing and development happening behind the scenes before those, those. True words come out right? And, and it's important that we give them opportunities each and every day to do that. So now the seventh key skill that your, your child needs before those true words, and this is another biggie, are gestures and. You know, I do think unfortunately, pediatricians, school-based teachers, and even a lot of speech language pathologists and occupational therapists, we miss this gesture thing. because I think we're so focused on the first words. First words, right? Say mama. Say Mama. Say dadda. Say dad, say cup. Say Boy, say doggie. Right. But what we really want them to do is gesture and, and, and I want you to enjoy this journey because when your baby blows you, a kiss or waves goodbye or gives you thumbs up or shrugs his shoulders or tries to wink, all of those beautiful gestures are telling us, wow, I'm getting it. I understand On a, on a. Cognitive human level that we're communicating, right? And the words will come only after gestures. And here's what research and, and real life experience as a, as a clinical therapist for, like I said, well over 35 years now, but. Gestures are one of the strongest predictors of early language development. If we skip over gestures, then the chances of your child being a late talker is pretty high. So we want them to point, right. That is, you know, the the first nonverbal way of saying, look, mama, look mama, I see a pumpkin. They can't say all of that, but they're pointing like, I recognize that. Look at Mama, we have, we have to go get pumpkins or we carved a pumpkin. Right? Or the, the, the, the joint. Right point. Look, mama. Mama, right. That, and they can't say helicopter, but they're like, helicopter. Helicopter, right? They're saying it with their nonverbal gesture by pointing or waving. I love waving when after a, a clinical session and I usually am talking to mom and we're walking toward the door and the kid starts waving to me like he's saying, I'm done. I'm done playing with you. I'm, I'm done listening to you. I wanna go, I wanna go outside. I'm done. Stop talking. This is saying a thousand things to us. Right? Or clapping out of joy, raising his arms to be picked up. A wide variety of gestures and yes, early baby signs can be gestures. They're don't think of them as replacing single words, but they're a precursor to words and they can reduce some of the stress. Right? But a baby. Or a young toddler even who isn't using gestures by 12 months, may really be at risk for a speech and language delay. So take a look at that and you can encourage through songs, through games, modeling, all of this. It's really essential, essential. And um, and I've shared this with you before, I'll, I will have this link down below as well. But 16 gestures by 16 months project, you can just Google it or you can use the link down below and, and give yourself a, um. The space to kinda watch your child and and collect, just like you're collecting single words that he or she can say, collect the gestures and see where they are. It's that important. Okay, so number eight of this list of 10 would be vocal play and early sounds. And I often say this, right, babies need to be noisy, period. Babbling isn't. Just baby talk. It's really the earliest form of practicing these speech sounds and they're realizing that I have control over this airflow. Right. I, that's called phonation. If I take in a breath and let it out, ah, right. But if I shape all of these. These teeny tiny muscles in my whole oral cavity, right? My lips, my jaw, my tongue. We can talk about the details later, but I can make different sound formations and I have control over that. And so when. And I love these videos online where you see a baby is just cooing, right? Ah, and the mom or dad are cooing back and they go back and forth and the baby is really understanding. You can see, I hear it. I feel it. You are doing it. I'm doing it. We're having a conversation. And then when they get more motor skills and they realize they can say, Baba ba ba ba. Go back, gee. And they just have a string of different consonants and different vowels. And that's what we want, that we want a lot of different. Sounds, and I can't stress that enough. English, American English, I don't know. Other Englishes might be slightly different, but American English has 44 sounds, 22 of them. That means half of them are. Vowels. So we have 26 letters in the alphabet, but we combine some of those letters to make different sounds, right. And I always give people the example of S can say, and H can say, ha ha ha. But you can also put those together and say, sh. Then that's what we call voiceless, right? There's no phonation on your, your voice box, you know? Right. Your larynx down there, but you can turn that on voicing and then it's like in beige or pleasure. Right. So that's how we come up with 44 different sounds. But there's also. Those 22 vowel sounds and those are the things that I want you guys to focus on on those, those first two years and just play with them. That's why songs like Old McDonald is remarkable'cause you make all of those animal sounds and they're varied. And they think it's funny and it's interesting. And you're doing the hand gestures, right? You're getting all the gestures you can, even a gesture where if you c cluck like a chicken, right? And maybe they're not saying bak bock bock b bock yet, but they're clucking their, their, their arms. That's a gesture. Or they can, make all those different coups, grunts. Squeals, we right. All of those varied sounds are really building their auditory attention. Right. So because they're realizing, ah, I have control and I can make different sounds, and at the same time they're, they're exercising those oral muscles, right. That are. Are different in the mouth, right? You like you have the lip sounds right. BB, B, B, and then you have the back sounds that we call like the the K or the g. Go, go, go, go. Right? And they're realizing, oh, I can make different sounds in different places. Right? But like I've always said here, there's this strong correlation between the motor movement and planning of eating and sucking and chewing and swallowing and talking. So that's why when you see a six month old, and if they're ready. Hopefully to sit up in the high chair. They have good neck control. They're able to bring things through their mouth. Then you can really explore a lot more in in their chewing. Eating and, and introductions to, to food at the same time. That's where between six and eight months, they really start babbling with different, different sounds. And it's, it's no fluke. God designed us this way, but they need your guidance. They need opportunities to practice. And you know, through all of my years and years and years of experience that babies who don't experiment with these sounds really need a lot more encouragement. They need a lot more face-to-face, vocal play. That's what we call it, vocal play, and a lot of exaggeration in your expressions because you need to make it interesting enough to draw their attention to you. Sustain that attention and then want to engage with you. And one, one tool that could easily help is mirror work, right? So you could have a handheld mirror, you could, get up on, tummy time and if you're in front of a long mirror in the back of your door or those baby mirrors. I think I had one here. Um. All of that. But you can go cheek to cheek, right? And they can see your face and see their, their face in the mirror. and it builds their attention. And that's also just a side note, when I would do mirror work and kids who were less. Likely to give me good eye contact as, as a form, as a nonverbal expression or a nonverbal, um, communication link with me. When I would do mirror work, they would give me eye contact through the mirror. And so that's a great introduction to looking at my eyes and looking at my mouth together.'cause there's a tight correlation, uh, in, in. In verbal and nonverbal, when we look at our eyes and look at our mouth together, that's again, one of the reasons I think why God designed newborns to only see for about eight inches, right? Just far enough for the mama or the caretaker to be holding them, and they can see your face pretty clearly, All right, so let's move on to number nine. That is imitation. And again, you're like, well, isn't this all imitation? But it's imitation is important to look at as its separate category because children learn by copying. Whether it's our speech or riding or reading or riding a bike, we watch someone do something and then we try it, right? But first, like go back to the early, early days, right? That first six weeks and 12 weeks is that we mimic them, And so it's our noise making. Whether it's accidental or on purpose. Facial expressions. Ooh, ah. You know, that kind of things. Hand gestures, imitation. Again, one of the, signs that I want to see early on is if I tap on the table, will they tap too? If I ring a bell, will they ring a bell too? If I blow a horn, will they blow a horn too? All of those imitation are powerful tools and precursors to language development. So a child who isn't imitating by nine. To 12 months may need a lot more encouragement from you. And all of these things is what I'm saying is these are precursors that are critical to those first words. So if you have a late talker at any age, take a look at these, these essential skills that they have to, Have opportunity to practice and build upon. So think of singing, playing interactive games, modeling simple words, acting out like animals. All of those, And I, I think, the possibilities are endless. And think about this, where pretty much every culture has their own. Baby nursery rhymes, right? The games to pull babies and toddlers in, whether it's peekaboo or where is thumping, where is thumping, those kinds of things where you're building their curiosity, you're pulling them into want to do it with you, and you're really sparking that initial step of learning, right? But imitation is really, really important. And then the 10th and final one of this list is building consistency and frequency. And it's all about routines, right? And we all learn better when we practice. So think development. Is not in these isolated moments. And, and I will often hear parents say, oh, he started saying drink and now he doesn't say it anymore. Well, you have to reinforce it. And you have to realize like, oh, this week, he, I, I heard three new words. Let's reinforce it. You won't have to do this forever. But in those early stages, lots of babies will need a lot of attention to get them to do it again and again and again. Right. So repetition and consistency. So like I started to say, it's, it's true for anything. Uh, no matter what age we are, when we're learning something new, we have to repeat it. Right. That's where the neurons that fire together wire together, and that's what neuroplasticity is. And it builds automaticity and smoothness, right? And less, or less brain powers going in once, once you've learned how to say, cut your food or tie your shoe or ride a bike, right? But anything that. At any age learning to play the piano or tennis or like I said, chew and eat healthy food. Or even if you and I as adults, we want to change our eating habits. A lot of repetition, a lot of consistency, right? When kids are first learning how to read or learning a, a second language, all of it is about repetition, repetition, consistency, consistency. There's no such thing as one and done in early development for sure. And I think in mastery period. Right? But babies need frequent exposure to what I have always referred to as language rich environment, language rich interactions throughout the day, right? Not just structured play. Okay, let's sit here and do this puzzle. Which is nice and that is important too, and it should be part of the, your lifestyle, But it's, it's, Hey, let's put the dishes away. Hey, let's fold some clothes. Hey, let's go on a few errands. We're gonna go to the post office and we're gonna, get a haircut or whatever your plan is for the day. But pulling them in and getting them. Involved in the steps along the way. and that's why in my previous work where I saw, a lot of families every week. I would stress and part of our working relationship and our agreement was that you would watch me through the one way mirror and you would typically come once, maybe twice a week depending on, on the child and the needs and all of this, and you would watch me do X, Y, Z for 45 minutes. And then you mom, you dad, grandparents, you have to do the heavy lifting. Do what I just modeled for you and practice that each and every day. Right? And, and that's the key here, is don't wait because that might cause some struggles along the way. The real work happens. Every day. If, if we work out every day, whether it's walking or hiking or swimming or biking or lifting, then we see progress. I. and that's true for the precursors, getting them ready and setting the stage for them then to have enough oral motor awareness and skill and good sound mapping, right? They've heard you talk. All the time. So now I know the vast majority of those 44 sounds and I'm gonna play with putting them together. and the more often that your child experiences. These early building blocks, the stronger the foundation for speech, which are the physical sounds, and then language, which is expressive and receptive language. And if you focus on weaving these things in these 10 essential elements into your daily routine, and, and you can do that with, like I said, mealtime diaper change, errands, bed stories, your toddler. I can almost guarantee it. We'll be eager to talk with you and want to share and express and expand his learning.'cause that's how we're wired. That's how God designed us to, to learn through imitation and modeling and exploring. Right? And yes, they do need time to play by themselves, but they can do that when they really have felt connected with you. So those are my 10. Let me just highlight them again. Sensory awareness, social connection, turn-taking skills, attention and joint attention. Receptive language, play development gestures, 16 gestures by 16 months. Vocal play and, and early sounds. Your, your babies need to be noisy. Imitation. And then a lot of consistency, repetition. So as we wrap up, I hope that you're walking away with a deeper understanding of the many, many skills that come before speech. And I know that getting your child to walk at one and getting him or her to say their first true words are huge milestones. But these are milestones too, and I want you to embrace them and say, yeah. What are we gonna do this week? Right? So language development isn't just about words. It's about social connection, attention engagement, play, daily interactions that build over time. And then they become a, a healthy, communicative partner, right? And it doesn't mean that all kids have to be chatty Cathy's, or that want to stand up and, do speeches for a living. It means that they can hold their own and that they can understand spoken language and recall spoken language and, and share when they need to. so if there's one thing that you take away from this, it's that you, mom. Are the most important, but dad and grandparent, you're pivotal in this too. But you play, you all play this powerful role in shaping your child's ability to communicate and communicate means to be able to think and reason and plan, and organize and share, and all of those beautiful, human. Processes that other mammals don't have. Right? But by fostering these 10 sensory awareness, encouraging a lot of vocal play, creating consistent home life, a, a language rich interaction. You are in there, that you're not just looking at the phone right while you're changing his diaper, that you're giving your baby the best possible starts. And it's hard in this modern world. I get it. And there's a lot of distractions and you have a big to-do list and a lot of responsibilities. But this is a, a little window. That first year, that second year, that third year, and by the time they hit their third birthday, they should be well on their way. It, it, you're certainly not done, but they should be pretty strong social communicators by then. And remember, you don't have to do this alone. I'm here trying to make it easier for you to, clear some of the clutter and don't forget to. Get that free guide that I have, the name of this whole episode, right? The Top 10 Essentials Before Any Child Can Talk. this resource will help you think about it, right? If you have a visual reminder there, you're like, ah, what can I work on this week in a natural loving environment? And the last thing, if you found today's episode helpful, I'd love for you to share it with other moms and caregivers that would benefit as well. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. you'll be the first to know about the future episodes and I'm really excited we will be diving in to some of these a little more deeper.'cause this is a lot of information. Just the sensory awareness and sensory processing is huge. But thank you as always for tuning in to talking toddlers and I'll see you next time. God bless. Take care. Bye-bye.