Reading regularly with your child is a great way to encourage clear speech

Collaborative post by another author.

Development of clear speech is one of the most gratifying experiences of parenting, but it has also been a worrying experience for most parents. Development from babbling to clear speech is different with every child, yet there are numerous tips that parents can participate in daily to enable and encourage their child's speech development. These strategies need no special training. They don't cost much, they just take reflective interaction and setting up a language-full environment...

Encouraging Clear Speech - Lead By Example

The key to clear speech is to start with your role as your child's chief language model. Kids learn to speak by hearing and imitating the talk they hear most. That means your daily conversations are their classroom. When you do speak to your child, make sure to use clear, articulated speech yourself. Don't talk "baby talk" or simplified speech, but use normal adult speech at a bit slower pace. It does not require unnatural slowness, but rather giving your child time to become accustomed to the sounds and patterns you're demonstrating. When your child tries to talk, look at them and give them your undivided attention, making eye contact and demonstrating real interest in what they are attempting to communicate.

Encouraging Clear Speech - Take Every Opportunity

Providing opportunities for spontaneous conversation during the day has a dramatic effect on speech development. While engaging in everyday activities such as meals, bath time or dressing, talk about what you are doing and what your child is feeling. For example, at breakfast time, you might say, "I'm putting the orange juice into your blue cup. Listen to it splat! Now I'm spreading peanut butter on your toast." This ongoing description places rich words in your child's life and connects words to things they can see and understand.

Encouraging Clear Speech - Repetition Is Essential

Reading a book with your child continues to be a great method for encouraging articulate speech. Select books that contain repetition of words, rhymes and pictures that illustrate the words. Pointing to a picture while reading and asking your child to identify an object or what they see is recommended. If they cannot speak the words yet don't worry; applaud their efforts and gently show them how to pronounce the words without making them feel corrected. Reading the same books over and over is not a bore for toddlers; it's valuable because it helps predict words and practicing saying them with you.

Encouraging Clear Speech - Validate All Efforts

When your child speaks, don't immediately correct pronunciations or grammatical mistakes. Instead, build on what they've just said with proper pronunciation and perhaps a little more elaboration. If your child says, "Doggy wunning," you might respond by saying, "Yes, the dog is running very fast in the park!" This approach validates their effort at communication while providing a model of correct speech without causing them to feel wrong or discouraged.

Encouraging Clear Speech - Get Into The Rhythm

Singing songs and reading nursery rhymes together provides wonderful advantages to language development. The rhythm, repetition and rhyming words assist children in acquiring the natural pattern and sounds of language. Much of traditional children's music targets specific sounds or speech patterns directly. Don't worry about a perfect performance, your child learns from the language patterns despite your musical talent. Encourage them to complete common words or phrases and reward their contribution even if they don't pronounce the words.

Encouraging Clear Speech - Keep It Fun

Play and games also provide natural settings for speech sounds, games like "I Spy" assist children to identify items and practice beginning sounds. Play with toys assists children to practice speech patterns and volumes as they generate voices for different characters or narrate action sequences. Pretend play situations, eg of being in a restaurant or doctors, provide engaging settings where children want to speak effectively to be heard by others. Your response to your child's communication attempts greatly influences their willingness to try them again, try to keep interested and enthusiastic even if their speech is not clear as a bell. If you fail to understand what they mean, do not pretend but neither should you despair. Feel free to ask polite questions such as, "Can you show me?" or "Tell me more about that." At times kids are able to explain through gestures or by pointing you in the direction of what they're discussing. Your persistence and patience show that their communication is worth the time and effort to learn.

Encouraging Clear Speech - Hold The Child's Interest

Creating a world rich in language includes reducing background noise where possible and being able to show your face while speaking. Television, and other electronic media, although sometimes useful, should not be the prime source of audio experience for your child. Language is optimally experienced live, with face-to-face communication, where children are able to witness the creation of sounds and facial expressions and gestures that add meaning. In the car, or when cleaning up, turn off background media and communicate with each other instead. Note the specific interests of your child and use them as starting points for learning language. If the child is interested in trucks, add truck words to daily conversation, read truck books, and engage in truck games that have a communication component. This targeted approach maintains the child's interest while naturally expanding their vocabulary in topics they have an interest in.


Lastly, and above all, patience is perhaps the most important aspect in encouraging your child's speech. Each child grows at his or her own rate, and comparisons with other children only serve to cause undue stress. Some children are just more talkative, and others gradually improve their speech. Consistent, loving interaction and intensive language exposure will develop your child regardless of their individual timeline. Remember the motivation behind clear communication is not perfection or pressure but the establishment of a setting where communication is valued, enjoyed and exercised effortlessly on a daily basis. These every-day interactions, through patience, enthusiasm and genuine connection, are the foundations of your child's lifelong communication abilities. Believe in the process, celebrate small victories and understand that your daily efforts to interact and communicate with your child are establishing foundational skills that will be used by them throughout their lives. If you are concerned that your child's speech is significantly behind their peers you should speak to your GP, Health Visitor or a Speech Therapist who can advise if additional support is required.