6: Talking Today Part 2: Serve and Return

In this episode, we dive into important ways to help your child talk today. As the second part of my 3-part series, I'm teaching how to create a conversation your child wants to be a part of that can also help them learn new words. 

I wanted to start off today’s podcast with a quote from Carolina King of MamaInstincts.com. She says, “If your child feels loved, they feel safe. If your child feels loved, they can open up to you. If your child feels loved, they will be courageous in life because they know they have a cushion to fall back on. If there’s one big gift we can give our children is to know they are truly love, no matter what.”

This unconditional love is one of the most amazing gifts we can give to our children, especially if you felt like there was a lot of conditional love put on you growing up. I feel like there is a new generation of parents that are very focused on making sure that their children feel their love because they exist, not because of who they are or are not. I also think that our society puts a lot of pressure on how well someone performs being a measure of their worth. So, as we dive into this episode today, I want you to remember that the love that you have for your child is their super power. Your commitment to their happiness is everything to them. 

One thing that keeps coming up when I’m talking to moms of late talkers is that they feel a lot of confusion. They feel a lot of indecision. As I’m talking with you, a lot of you feel like you are the only one who is worried about your child’s language development. You’re seeing that other kids are passing them by even though they are younger than your child. And a lot of you have very supportive friends and family telling you that there is nothing wrong. Now, some of these people may or may not be right. The vast majority of late talkers do outgrow their delays and catch up to their typical peers. But it’s incredibly difficult to figure out which ones are going to “outgrow” their delay and which ones won’t. 

The great news is that whether your child has a language delay or not, the next information I’m going to share with you is something that will help any child in their communication development. So last week, I shared that I’m doing a mini-series on ways to improve your interactions with your child to help their language development. I talked about the importance of joint attention, or your child’s ability to pay attention to a separate object from you and being able to check in with you that you are also paying attention to that same object. It’s such an important precursor to real language development.

Today, we’re going to build and expand on that principle. I’ll share information about 4 specific communication tips today. They are: