When your child is not reaching their language milestones on time, it can be a scary feeling for most parents. The reality is, our world has been anything but normal over the past year and internet “norms” may not be an accurate representation of what’s expected of your child. It is important to remember that every child is different and develops at their own pace. When those first words don’t come reaching out to a Speech Language Pathologist is your best bet to have an assessment done. A nice place to start when it comes to language development is motor imitation!

Did you know that speech is a motor task? Your speech articulators work together with your brain to formulate sounds. By working on motor imitation with your child, you will enrich interactions. The first step to motor imitation is taking a few minutes to sit and play with your child face to face. Face to face contact is important because it leads to eye contact and joint attention which are important foundations for language development. Imitation is the foundation to which language development is build.

Some examples of motor imitation activities you can do with your child are:

1. Waving- Waving is a nice way to increase communication by using a gesture!
2. Pointing to Objects– by sitting with your child and pointing to objects you are discussing can aid in communication input.
3. Blocks– Building a block tower and knocking it down! Take turns adding blocks to the tower, look to your child and anticipate their turn.

Once you target motor imitation, a good next step is sound imitation!

Written by Registered Speech-Language Pathologist with Wildflowers in Yorkton, Brooke Zulak