We have been running Teeny Talker sessions at Featherstone and Landywood Children's Centres since January. These sessions are for two year olds. The toddlers have been having fun with games, rhymes, songs, bubbles, stories and snack-time but have actually been working on their attention, listening, turn-taking, verbal understanding and vocabulary as well as expressive language skills. These are all essential components for developing language and communication.
Many two year olds are not talking as expected and there are many different reasons for this (see last post) e.g. they don't need to because they have everything they want, maybe someone talks for them, perhaps they don't see the need to talk, there could be a general delay or a specific difficulty which will require referral to the NHS Speech and language therapist and further investigation. The groups have been a good way of showing the parents ideas and techniques to help.
Running groups for children this young has real benefits and is great fun.... for me as well as them!
For further information 0844 704 5888 www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk or www.smarttalkers.org.uk
It varies so much at that age, doesn't it? Our daughter only had a few words (orders mainly!) on her 2nd birthday, which was in October and by Christmas, she was chatting away as if she'd been doing it her whole life. She has a very mature and varied vocabulary now according to nursery.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fabulous achievement!
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