This ALWAYS Happens Before Babies Say Their First Word (Every Parent Misses This One) Ep 131

The Hidden Step Before First Words (Every Parent Misses This One)

If your toddler isn’t using many words yet, this episode will change the way you see early communication. 

Most parents—and honestly, many professionals—focus on the number of words. But talking doesn’t begin with words. It begins with the body, with connection, and with one crucial developmental step that predicts everything that comes next.

In today’s episode, Erin pulls back the curtain on the hidden foundations of communication—what really happens before first words—and why this matters for every child from 6 months to 2½ years and beyond.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
 • the overlooked skill that shows up months before talking
 • why gestures are symbolic communication (just like words!)
 • how noisy babies, motor movement, and early imitation shape language
 • surprising predictors of later vocabulary growth
 • what the CDC’s “30-month” update got dangerously wrong
 • how parents can spot healthy communication patterns early on
 • simple ways to support your baby or toddler today

Whether you have a baby just finding their voice, a toddler who’s slow to talk, or you’re simply a parent who wants to understand your child’s development with confidence—this episode will give you clarity, direction, and peace of mind.

Because talking isn’t a milestone…
 it’s a process.

And once you see the path, you’ll never look at communication the same way again.

👉 Learn the simple routines that help words emerge naturally — save your spot here: GET YOUR BABY TALKING WORKSHOP

FREE Guide: Is My Child On Track? Top 10 Essential Skills For Talking

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DISCLAIMER:

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your pediatrician or a qualified health provider with questions about your child’s development or health. The views shared are based on Erin Hyer’s professional experience and are intended to support informed parenting, not to replace individual consultation or care. Every child and family is unique — please use your discretion and consult trusted professionals when making decisions for your child.

📩 Questions: contact@HyerLearning.com
 🌐 www.HyerLearning.com

Transcript

Erin: 0:00

Words develop a lot like bamboo grows, it's slow for a long while and it's, really happening under the ground, and then all of a sudden it's everywhere. And that's what happens with the language explosion around 18 to 24 months It's because the wiring system, the Motor wiring system and the symbolic understanding are really coming together. But this is the missing piece, 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. 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. If your toddler isn't talking yet, or if you're counting words and the list seems a little short, I want you to pause with me because your toddler not using many words, is not the first sign there could be a problem, not even close. There's a step, a hidden step that shows up months earlier, and if you know what to look for. You can see exactly where your child is on the developmental path long before those first real words ever appear. Today, I'll show you that hidden step because it predicts everything about talking and most parents have never been told to look for it. Welcome to Talking Toddlers. I'm Erin, and for well over 35 years I've had the privilege of walking alongside babies and toddlers, families and therapists and teachers. I've been in real homes, messy kitchens, active playrooms, grocery store aisles and countless living rooms. Watching children grow and communicate with the most natural. Paths. And if you're here today, this episode is for you no matter what age your child is mom, you could have a six month old starting to see more alertness and engagement. You could have an eight month old emerging with new sounds and curiosity and lots of movement. Or you could have a 12 month old who's not quite talking yet, and you're quietly wondering, Hmm, when's it gonna start? Yeah, perhaps you have a 24 month old and you're starting to worry just a little bit. I don't understand. You want to ask questions or maybe you do have a late talker and you're thinking, okay, Erin, what should I be looking for? What can I do today? Well, this episode is for all of you, And if what you hear today sparks clarity or even relief, my December 6th workshop will take you deeper. We'll talk about the three daily habits that move babies and toddlers from sounds to gestures, to words. But today, let's start with the foundation, because that's what's beneath all this talking. Let's start with the elephant in the room. Parents, you have been misled, terribly misled about language and language milestones for years. The CDC said toddlers should have around 50 words minimum by their second birthday, and that was true throughout the sixties and seventies, eighties, nineties, and beyond. And the truth is, it's true today, however. Quietly just a couple of years ago, the CDC decided to push that out to 30 months, meaning not expect 50 words until he's 30 months of age versus 24 months of age. So let me be really frank. no speech language pathologist worth their salt agrees with that shift. No one, because stretching that milestone out to 30 months doesn't prevent worry. It prevents early identification, the exact opposite of what they claimed. A toddler who reaches 30 months, that's two and a half years of age with very few words, didn't just fall behind that child needed support a year ago. The fact is, parents, you are told to look at the wrong signs. Today, I'm going to give you the signs that actually matter long before that 30 months or that 24 months. Most of you think talking starts with words, but that's not how development works. Talking starts with our body with connection. And movement, imitation, symbolic thinking and shared meaning. Let me walk you through what really happens before those first true words. And we'll do this conversationally, not step by step, because that's kind of dry and boring, but because development isn't a checklist either. It flows and it overlaps there's a relationship between things that you're looking at. So let's start at the beginning. Noisy babies come first. They come before gestures or before babbling and before long before that, mama or ball, right? We have to get sounds out of your baby and you'll begin with the most prominent crying. And there are different types of crying and then cooing and grunting and squealing, and blowing raspberries and little gasps and giggles. All of those are her or his true voice. Those are the first attempts, purposeful and spontaneously to communicate. These are not random noises. These are your child demonstrating how he or she is learning in real time and they're learning multiple things simultaneously. Breath control, timing, back and forth, that rhythm of your turn, my turn, vocal play. How do I get someone's attention and. Realizing, huh? When I make this sound, somebody responds. That's control over my environment. I don't have much control, but my voice has power. This is deep learning. This is human communication, but it's also also motor training. Because talking isn't just a language skill, and it is a language skill, but talking is a fine motor task and motor means muscle, right? These fine motor skills develop over time with lots and lots of practice. So being able to speak clearly at three and four and five and beyond actually takes. Over a hundred muscles from the diaphragm, which supports the breath, right? All the way up to those tiny muscles in the lips and the tongue, and the jaw and the throat. All of those muscles coordinating together to shape all the different consonants, all the different vowels, and. There are 26 letters. Letters in our alphabet, but there are 44 different sounds we as English speakers use, and 22 of them are vowels alone. So there has to be a lot of vocal play, purposeful and spontaneous to get these muscles to coordinate with one another. and at the same time, your child's brain, specifically the motor cortex, which is a region just behind the, this frontal lobe. We talk a lot about the frontal lobe, which is executive function and inhibition and, and, uh. Processing of a lot of data, but the motor cortex has to coordinate all of those hundred muscles, including breath and flow and inhalation exhalation in milliseconds. That's precision that you and I don't even think about ever. Right. Most moms and dads, I mean I think about it'cause I'm kind of a speech geek, but the average mother and the pediatrician or the teacher or the play therapist or whatever you go, don't really think about what does it take to produce speech, physically produce speech, but at the same time understand. Right. So, I often give parents the example like. An adult would not just walk up to a piano at, at a big recital and instantly start playing Beethoven right Not only because you have to know musicality, but the physical. Intelligence and and practice that it requires to sit down at a piano and play and play a musical piece like that. Well talking works the same way, and yet we often just think that they're gonna wake up at two and three and to start talking. Your child needs all of that warmup and all of that practice and figuring out how to put all of this stuff together. So somewhere in that halfway mark of that first year of life, something magical begins to happen and gestures really start to emerge. So it's usually around eight or nine months and there's a lot of things going on, and that's what one of my most favorite developmental periods, because you see all of this stuff really starting to click together. And gesture is really the hidden step that no one really talks about. US speech, people might talk about it, but I would say even half of us don't really zone in on that in early, early development. We look at that 12 month mark. One of our first questions on any history form is when did they say their first true word besides mama or dadda, right? Because those are kind of accidental words and then we reinforce them, but. This hidden step gestures really helps us understand where they are developmentally and where they're going. So gestures to me are not just cute little extras. You know, when they, I mean, it's charming when they blow you a kiss. It's charming when they try to wink, right? But. They're not optional. When we look at early development and those stepping stones to building this magnificent thing called human communication. They're not just a wave, right? This is telling me a lot when your, your baby really begins to wave on purpose. Gestures are what we look at as symbolic communication, which is the same mental process, the same understanding as how words. Are used words are a symbolic representation of objects in the world, or wants, or needs or feelings or, or states of, of being right. Hungry. That word hungry means something. Well, when I look at you and I shrug my shoulders, that means something too. When I give you a thumbs up, that gesture that's communicating, that's representing something. I could say, I don't know, or I could shrug my shoulders. They're both representing a concept. So yes, a wave means goodbye. It could also mean I'm done. Stop talking please. Right. A point means look at that. I want that one. Or, isn't that interesting or what is that mama? Or, a reach means I, I want that or pick me up. That is a, a very common first gesture, I need comfort, I need love, I need reinforcement. And like I said, shrugging the shoulders or clapping high five is a very modern gesture, but it is environmentally. Understood. Blowing a kiss, right? That means a lot to us. Saying something and putting your lip, or putting your index finger to your lips, all of that is symbolic communication. Symbolic gestures proceed. The symbolic voicing of how to communicate. And gestures give me a lot of understanding of where your child is, whether they're 12 months, 18 months, two years, even three years. So it's telling me that your child is beginning to really understand where. Their ability to, to figure out what's going on around them. Gestures, tell me that your child is developing a desire to communicate. They're using gestures and body language to get something or share something. It's also telling me what's going on underneath the hood. You know that symbolic thinking, like, oh, I know. That if I point to something, maybe they'll take me over there and we get to look in the cupboard and I get out my favorite toy or my favorite snack, right? Your child is through his or her gestures is also telling me that my awareness of how this world works is making more and more sense to me because of my experiences and that they're beginning to realize that my behavior. Can influence others, right? So there's a lot of cognitive, understanding when I watch a child's gestures. It also, and, and this is the purpose of this whole episode, to help you guys understand that when they have a plethora of gestures, it's telling me. I'm ready. I'm ready for real words. I understand that the symbolism is used and that's why if you Google, 16 gestures by 16 months, it's upfront and center in any kind of school organization or the CDC or pediatrics, although people don't. It's there and it's been there for a long while. This was a, a big study that's done and, and helps give you guys a, a kind of a structure framework of here are six very, very common gestures that you should expect by 16 months. If they're not using a lot of these gestures consistently and independently, then there's a higher risk for late talking. And we know this to be absolutely true. So if gestures are missing, words will be challenging. like I said, it's not theory. This has been studied and consistently reinforced. And here's a deeper truth that talking begins in our body. And gestures are movement and speech is movement. Remember those hundred muscles that we use to. Reduce speech, well, movement wires the brain. My, my pushing for getting on the floor and crawling and climbing and playing and building, all of that is movement. So all of these movement exercises or opportunities. Is wiring the brain through more and more movement. Finer and finer movement control. So when your toddler moves his body, they're strengthening the same neural pathways that will ultimately be used for speech and gestures. Prepare that motor system for talking, for producing speech from your mouth, right from those a hundred muscles. So let's take a look at what I look at as this kind of magical period of eight to about nine months where all of this movement is coming together and you're going to see it integrated, right? So around eight or nine months, you'll see patterns that make more sense. There's more babbling and babbling. Isn't just cooing or saying a few sounds here and there. Babbling is really a lot of different consonants and a lot of different vowel sounds. So you want to hear what we call differentiated speech sounds, and they're coming together with gestures. Sometimes it's hand gestures. They're talking just like we would, you know, and judo and, and, and so they're using a lot of different. Jargon or babbling sounds with the hand gestures. There's a lot more eye contact with intention, like to get your intention to, to tell you something that they're happy or sad or scared or nervous or unsure. Right? And there's also a lot more Imitation. They're going to, have the similar body language and intonation pattern, like I said, and facial expressions. They're going to try them out as part of their dress rehearsal, as part of their, their part practicing in being a human right. And then there's a lot more shared interest. Especially at eight and 10 and 12 months. They wanna get into everything that you are into because they wanna check things out. They're interested in what you are interested, and it's like watching. Uh, especially in that eight to 12 months, it's really watching all of these gears click into place and they're putting it together. They're a lot more vocal play, like I said, a lot more gestures, a lot more engagement, and, and, and it kind of is exhausting, but it's also telling us that things are wiring together and, and so I look at it. It is not really just. Joint attention and just engagement, but it's really the engine of their language system is really coming online, really starting to wire up and connect and firing, right? So this is when gestures and babbling really start dancing together and, and you can see a lot of these clips online, whether it's TikTok or Instagram or or YouTube shorts where you'll see a lot of. Really wonderful, wonderful examples. And, and, and it is a dance, it's like a tango where they're really understanding their body language and, and the speech patterns, right? So I do want to highlight here that even before gestures, there's still a few precursors, right? Because they start putting all this stuff together or wiring their system up. The, the moment that they're born. And so if we're looking at that 8, 9, 10 months with gestures starting to come online, then what happened? Those in those first eight months, right? So even before your child begins to wave or point, there's a lot happening underneath and, and. Touched upon this before, but it's so important that even if you have an 18 month or a 24 month to look back and say, where were they in those early, early months? Because then you can see what kind of path they have they're creating and understand where they are today. So, so just so you we're all on the same page before those gestures even start to pop up. They need that attention on your face because the human face really is pivotal as a lifeline for them, the human voice, and then really recognizing your face and then interested in your movements, your facial movements, some of your hand gestures early on, and then really that. That early, early turn taking where it, it begins to unfold naturally in your, your moments of connection. Right? And those are tiny bits of imitation where you, you maybe make a raspberry sound and they make an raspberry sound and they're beginning to understand routines. Like if I cry in the morning. Mom's gonna come and get me, and then we're going to hug a little bit, and then she's going to make me feel better by, you know, changing my, my dirty diaper and then feeding me. And they're beginning to really, not conceptually think about it, but understand that there's routine there, patterns. And they're beginning to recognize your expressions too. Expressions where you're tired, or expressions where you're happy, or expressions where you're sleepy. All of those kinds of things. And then also anticipating. So those first eight months, there's a lot of wiring going on as those precursors to anticipate your behavior. Oh, after we snuggle, when she picks me up, we're gonna change my diaper. And so. Uh, during those first six or eight months, I wanna talk about something that's, that's pretty important. because they don't just start imitating us right there, there's a thing called the mirror neurons that really kind of came into our, our research world and, and our therapy world. About 10 years into my private practice. So somewhere around 1996 or so, researchers started to share with us that there are certain brain cells that activate when you perform an action, but they also activate when you, we watch somebody else perform that same action. And you know, I often give the example of. Um, the mirror neurons are still part of our system, even when we're older. Like, what if I am to yawn? You would often yawn too. And that's that instant reflex or those mirror neurons firing. Well, there's been, you know, a, a lot of debate around what are, or what aren't mirror neurons and how do they, how do they work? And I think debate in science is incredibly, uh, healthy and strong. It pushes science forward, pushes us to think more, uh, per, you know, test it out, but. US early intervention specialist really took a hold of this saying this. This answers a lot of our kind of why types of questions, right? Because we saw it every day, especially with little, little babies. if you look at a two or a three week old, they will stick out their tongue. When you stick out your tongue. How does that, how does that happen? They're not really. Volitionally and purposefully doing, but if you watch these, your baby or your friend's baby, or again, there are a ton of Instagrams and YouTubes the dad will stick out the tongue or the mom will say, oh, and the baby will say, oh, just identical. And you're like, how the heck does that go on? Well, those are mirror neurons, and it's a reflex. It's not a conscious choice that the baby's doing. They're not. Doing it on purpose though that motor cortex isn't firing just yet, but I believe it's God's design and he built in these natural reflex systems to kind of warm the pump, right, or to prime the pump to get the engine revving. And. When your baby is first born in those, those first three months, they're kind of a blob. They don't have motor control. Those neurons aren't connected yet. They're just beginning. Yeah, I can recognize your voice now. I'm learning your face. But what happens is those mirror neurons help them. S reflexively imitate us by either a voice, sound, or pattern or mouth posture, And when those mirror neurons appear, then we imitate them. And that's the first step to turn taking, that's the first step that the precursor to real imitation on their part. We imitate them and that's critical. If, if they didn't have this, or if we as humans didn't have this reflex, these mirror neurons to imitate, then you know, we would just love on our baby and all of that. But. It's hard to engage with a baby that's kind of just a blob, right? And I mean this lovingly and honestly, but that back and forth starts spontaneously with them and then gets us more and more engaged. Engaged and our, we get a dopamine hit when they imitate us. It's hilarious when they stick out their tongue or say, oh, just like us or mama, right? So for a second here, let's zoom out because the other piece to all of this is that every culture, almost every generation has these nursery rhymes and hand motions that go together, right hand in hand, no pun intended, but you know, think of. Our American, I don't know if you know other English speaking countries, say the same nursery rhymes, but wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy, spider patty, cake, head, shoulders, knees, and toes, all of it with these hand gestures that go with the repetitive songs. Why is that? It is because gestures have always been how humans teach the patterns, teach the rhythm of their natural language and the timing, all of that. And if we can do it with some kind of motor coordination, then it builds communication. So gestures are movement with meaning. So when I look across the room at a toddler and I wink, that means like, I see you. I got you. That was a full communication. And nine times outta 10, they're gonna understand that that wink was positive. So the movement supports speech because speech is movement, so we're wiring the same systems, and so this is why toddlers. Who move more, tend to talk more and it, and so I, you know, my purpose here is to try to connect all of these pieces so you then know when you study, quote unquote observe your child. Where are they? Where is he today? In his movement, in his attention, in his, his gestures and play. Okay, so gestures actually help your toddler learn the words. And this is, this is really, really important for all of us to understand. Moms, therapists, doctors, babysitters, all of it. That gestures don't just. Come first, you know, in your checklist, right? They literally support word learning and word production, and, and a lot of people overlook this. When your child points to something, they look and then you look, you label it. They connect whatever comes out of your mouth to this object. If they point to a tutu train and you say train, and you both are looking at it and he hears train terrain. Oh, that word pattern, what I heard watching her mouth, that's connected. Or a simpler word would be puppy. Puppy. Oh, I can see that. I hear that. I'm pointing. I'm making that attachment So their pointing their finger is really their first little magic wand. I point you respond, I point you show up, I point you say something. Pointing is very, very powerful. It says a lot the fine motor dexterity too, of just holding down your other fingers and just pointing out that that index finger, that's also telling me some good fine motor skills are developing, so gestures also help with word retrieval, so you'll see a toddler sign more, right? That's a pretty common sign while trying to say it. Mm. And so the gesture literally helps the brain process and pull out the right word. So they've heard the word, they've mapped it and. Now they're gesturing it and it, takes a word retrieval system to kind of put it all together. So there, there's so much happening with motor movement and learning language, auditorily and then spoken language. And so, what happens in this whole eight to nine months period we have a lot more jargon. So jargon is, beyond just babbling, but they're really building longer and longer utterances. Right. They're, it is not just a two or three. Uh, babble, like baba da, it's like ba you know, they're having full fledged conversations with you. And then a lot of approximations too. So those approximations are words that they can almost say correctly. And that's usually around 12 to 16 months where you're seeing babbling strings of babbling, turning more into jargon.'cause then it has the intonation patterns. Their longer utterances, they typically will then. Use hand gestures to go along with it, and then approximations. So maybe he can't say puppy and he says PA or papa, Maybe he can't say water, so he says, wah or Wawa. Those are approximations. And so. Those elements start, or those skills start to really blend together and like I said, with longer strings of jargon and babbling, then they get more and more practice and with more and more intonation, and then they're putting it together with gestures and, and then you can see how they're communicating with intention. It is not just a little vocal play anymore. It's not just trying to get somebody's attention, but they're really trying to communicate, on purpose with you and build a conversation. So I look at it often and I can't remember who actually taught me this or, or shared this with me, but you can think of it's like. Toddler karaoke, right? That they know the tune to the song, but they don't know the words yet. So that's what they'll s They'll sound a lot like, this karaoke, they have the tune going on in their head without the clear articulation and the clear words, but we do expect. Between 12 and 18 months for kids to say 10 to 20 real words. And they might be approximations, like I said, like Wawa, Or instead of doggy, they could say Augie, there should be a lot more attempts also to label things that are important to them, part of their routine or something that they do every day. And so they should be attempting to label them and getting closer and closer to your adult formation of the word. It can still, it's still going to be highly approximated, but that then is where. Animal sounds and environmental sounds and simple requests come because animal sounds you can have fun with. And they can symbolically represent the animals, the cow, and the chicken and the bird, and. Environmental, like the choo two train and the horn on the wheels on the bus and all of that. And, but those are, are true words, even though they're sound patterns that you and I would define as, but I put them on the list of, of words and this was something else that somebody, uh. Kind of made up, or maybe I read it where when we talk about animal sounds like moo, for example, Moo isn't just a word that it really is kind of like a word wearing a costume, it's not cow. We understand that but B-B-B-B-B isn't chicken. But they're recognizing that if I say something. In a certain pattern, it means something, whether it's an object or a, a request or an action. Like give me a hug, or blowing you a kiss. All of those things that they're really true symbolic representations, and that's the heart of it all because. As you move into all those precursors in those first eight months, and then you're, you're starting to wire everything between eight and 12 months where the babbling gets more and more complex, the gestures become highly consistent, and there's a lot more movement, there's a lot more vocal play, and there's play with more intention. Then what happens? Between 18 months and 24 months is this language explosion but that can only happen if the foundation is strong, right? You have all the, the noisy babies, you have then the gestures that they're putting with the noises. Like I said, there's a lot of. Of integration going on, sensory integration, they're really starting to imitate people and, and actions and you're seeing that symbolic thinking, right? And then there are approximating more and more real words. And so I want you to think of it as sort of that. Words develop a lot like bamboo grows, That it's slow for a long while and it's, it's really happening under the ground, and then all of a sudden it's everywhere. And that's what happens with the language explosion around 18 to 24 months It's because the wiring system, the Motor wiring system and the symbolic understanding are really coming together. But this is the missing piece, the gestures that I think a lot of parents and professionals knows really overlook, You're trained or you're, you're set up to look at the final step, which are real words, and yet we're missing all of the rich development leading up, the look at as the runway. You, we need that in order to end up at, in speaking real words and, and phrases by two years of age. So a lot of you parents have been told this and professionals, what's their word list? how many vocabulary, how even how many nouns versus action words, right? what? What's been happening for the first 18 months or 24 months? So. No matter where you are in this journey, just beginning at six months, at 24 months, and you're not sure, then take a look at gestures, their ability to imitate joint attention and sustained attention with you with a shared object. And then think about what are they doing to communicate? What's their symbolic thinking, and is it just that they grab your hand and take you to it? Well. We want more than that. And, and can they build on their gestures and their movement? What are their interests? Is it a variety of interests? Are they beginning to learn how there are animals and animal sounds and their environment and environmental sounds and are, you know, that's where you go back to nursery rhymes. And, and I'm gonna do it with you and can you imitate me through with these gestures and we'll talk about imitation'cause that's another big piece to this puzzle. So the overlooked concerns are often minimal or late babbling. that's a big one. When I look at, a 6, 8, 10, 12 months, I want them to really start babbling and play with a lot of different vocal sounds. And, and I think that, again, it goes back to we want noisy babies, but we also want babbling babies, So a toddler with no gestures can be identified. Earlier than a toddler who isn't speaking true words at two or now as the cd CDC says at 30 months. That's just ridiculous. You don't wait until you're 30 months when, when, if you're 12, 14, 16 month old isn't really showing a lot of gestures and a lot of vocal play. Let's look at that, right? Because there's a lot we can change to your day-to-day routine. You can look and say, what am I gonna focus on? Let's focus on nursery rhymes. You we can use that at 14, 16, 18 months and not wait until they're 30 months. That's true prevention, that's keeping them on track, and that's what I'm all about here. So this idea when the CDC came out with 50 words at 30 months really had a lot of us and still does a lot of concern. And I will keep reinforcing that. Don't pay attention to that. That is bad advice, you know, because it, like I said, it ignores the whole symbolic system. It disregards. The motor developmental skills, again, not only did they push the, the 50 words out to 30 months, they completely erased crawling. I don't know why. Well, I know what they say is that, oh, it's. Easier for parents and professionals to follow the checklist then, but they don't look at the social, social system well enough or the serve and the return. Taking a look at mirror neurons early on, especially in the, as a precursor to, to gestures and imitation, right? How do they learn imitation or how do they learn gestures through imitation, the entire developmental chain that leads toward talking. So whether you have 50 words at two years of age, and then you start having phrases, or you have 50 words at 30 months of age, how the heck do you get there? So. I always wanna give you the tools to know what to look for and what they mean, And, and to look for real signs of growth and development. And if they're not moving in that direction, then meet them where they are, Because you can make a difference today. Every day you can make a difference. You don't need a therapist and you don't need a label, and you don't need an evaluation, you can take this information, say, okay, how can you know, maybe I'll ultimately need that support, but today, what can I do with your child? Right? So, you know, model gestures and, and see how they, they use them, do they understand them? Wave and point and clap and reach and shrug, blow kisses. thumbs up high five, even a bump fist, right? Lots of kids do that. Now. That's a new gesture. you know, kids love it when they, when you whisper to them, put your, your index finger to your finger or to your lips, right? even so big, right? Or the peace sign. That's a, a very, uh, sophisticated. Gesture, but all of those are important. You can even use baby signs. Now, I don't always teach or support to use baby sign language, but you can make your own home signs. You can use baby signs, like I said, more, or eat or thirsty. Yum. Yum. That's not a baby sign. but don't use it in lieu of speech. Always. Always. Even when you do the gestures, always piggyback it with verbal communication. And that's one of the keys that when baby signs came, became popular, I was always out there saying, yes, that's cute. Yes, that supports gestures and motor planning and all of that, but don't stop talking. Right? And so we want the physical. Gestures are signed to support the spoken words. Remember, gestures also helps with word retrieval, so what it often does is remove some of the stress perhaps we place on kids. Uh. Of using real words and it comes out more natural. And so when we compare gestures with sound, it always works better. It always serves and it helps wiring that brain more and more and more. And that's what we're doing here. We're always wiring our brain, right when we, especially when we're learning something. So you look at your baby and your toddler and your preschooler, they're learning everything every single day, So. Use these in your daily routine when you sit down and eat with them and oh, you hungry, want to eat hungry? Sit. Those are baby signs you can use, right? but follow your child's interest. Create some anticipation, and especially around nursery rhymes. Those are great. And then celebrate when they're using imitation and gestures. So simple daily habits create a powerful language foundation. And this is exactly what I teach in my workshop. And speaking of workshops, if this is making sense, if you're realizing your child might be further along than you thought, or you're seeing opportunities that you didn't realize before. I want to invite you to my December 6th live workshop. It's a 90 minute work together, how to get your baby talking using three daily habits that build real words. And because you're part of this community, I'm offering an early bird window starting today, Tuesday, November 25th, and it will run through Friday, November 28th. It's just a quiet way for me to thank you for showing up each and every week. Take advantage of this early access because I know that you're ready and that you need and want clarity. The link is down below, and I'm excited to help you stop guessing and really truly feel in control and to know where your child is and how to support them. You are in a perfect position right now, whether you have a six month old or an 18 month old, or even a 24 month old, because you'll know where they are and what the next steps are. You simply need. Someone to explain what the developmental path looks like, and then those words, will just blossom. Your child is learning and your child is growing, and communication happens long before those first words. You are the center of your child's world, and you can help them build that foundation for real communication that supports everything that they will do. I'm right here with you. I'm cheering you on. God bless, and I'll see you next week in talking toddlers.