Some children start chattering early – others take their time. Alison Sparkes on encouraging your toddler to communicate

Some parents get very competitive about speech. They’ll boast about the range of vocabulary and the complicated sentences that their child has mastered. Clearly another Einstein has been born. Having two young sons along with nieces and nephews of varying verbosity, what makes me chortle is that however vocally advanced a child is at two, by the time they hit ten, they’re all pretty much the same.

My nephew had very little to say before he started school. Various people made comments, worrying his mother (because if you’re a mother, worried is your default state of being). Weeks into school, he was staggering teachers with his astounding reading ability. At the age of five he already has a reading age of eight. Which underlines very clearly what we all know. Every child develops at his or her own pace.

When you think about it, the learning curve of the average baby into toddlerhood is quite amazing

Communication kicks in from day one, as any mum (or dad) will know, when your baby tells you purely with the pitch of his strangled wail, that he’s got a bad case of wind.

By the time he’s saying Dada, you’ve already developed a sophisticated communication system of facial expressions, pitch of scream, wail or gurgle, hand signals and body movements. Indeed, some experts suggest that infants who take longer to talk aren’t suffering because their parents don’t encourage them to chatter, they simply have a better than average understanding of all the non-verbal stuff.

After all, if you intuit your child’s every need, what’s the point in him laying on a three-minute audio presentation for you?

‘We’re living in a very hectic world and it’s easy to forget to give children choices,’ explains Emma Rosenberg, a senior speech therapist working with paediatrics in Southampton. ‘If toddlers aren’t naturally chatty and you don’t ask what they’d like to wear or just pour out the squash, they don’t have to say anything.’

Encouraging your toddler to talk should be a natural, unpressurised process

You may hear the first words from your baby, or noises that could be a word like dada and mama, as early as 10 or 11 months. Usually though, it’s around the 12–18 month mark that the sounds turn into something really recognisable.

‘It’s never too early to start looking at books with your baby,’ says Emma. (Have a look at our article ‘Babies need books’ for suggestions) ‘The main thing is to have fun. Throughout the day have a few set times when you just sit down and play and talk together. Switch the telly or the radio off, because very young children find it difficult to phase out background noise to hear what you’re saying.

‘Use action rhymes, like Pat-a-Cake or Wind Your Bobbin In. Repeat any noises your baby or toddler makes, taking it in turns. Most of us do this anyway – and we help by naming things they point at, like ‘car’ or ‘teddy’.

‘If they say something like ‘Daddy gone’, you can say ‘Daddy gone to work’, to encourage them further.

And, according to the experts, there’s nothing wrong with baby talk. ‘Within reason, obviously,’ says Emma. ‘Most people – men particularly – raise the pitch of their voice when talking to babies. It’s an instinctive thing, because babies find it much easier to make out your voice when it’s higher pitched.’

Late talkers generally catch up with their peers by the time they’re at school

As a general guide, by the time your child is 18 months old, a health visitor will expect a vocabulary of about 10–20 words.

If there’s a genuine problem, whether it’s straightforward glue ear (which causes problems with hearing and hence speech development) or more complex special needs, your health visitor should pick up any difficulties at developmental checks. Mention any worries you have at this stage and if you’re concerned, ask for a consultation with a speech therapist.

For further information on speech therapy services and support groups you can call the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists on 020 7378 3012 / 3.