A few years back, I was working with a family to provide speech therapy for their toddler-aged child.
This family is a great family!
They want all the best things for their child.
When I went to their home for a home visit, I was a little overwhelmed.
This wonderful family wanted so much to support their learning of their child that they had purchased lots of toys.
So many toys that it was difficult to move around in their family room.
So many toys that I felt overwhelmed and was worried that maybe their child felt overwhelmed too.
We worked together to figure out what tools were going to be most helpful to help their child learn. And we thinned out the toys.
I know that this scenario is not isolated to this one amazing family.
Many parents want the best things for their children and find tools that they think are going to help support the learning of their children.
So, let’s look at what doesn’t work and what does.
Common Educational Tools That DON’T Work
There are three common tools that well-meaning parents often buy or use with the desire to support their child in learning to talk.
- Educational toys
- Educational TV shows and YouTube videos
- “First words” books
All of these tools could be helpful, but they don’t work. At least not alone on their own.
Let’s look at each one.
A Common Tool | Educational Toys
Toys are a huge industry. According to the Toy Association, toys are a $4.5 billion market (The Toy Association, n.d.).
Of all those toys being purchased, many are education toys.
Or at least they claim to be.
Researchers found that caregivers used toy descriptions to make toy purchase decisions (Hassinger-Das et al, 2021). They also found that when the toy description highlighted the toys’ developmental benefits, caregivers became more likely to select electronic toys for their infants.
But are those toys really the best toys for learning?
Infants and toddlers don’t learn by having a toy speak words when they touch a button.
Infants and toddlers learn heuristically (Daly & Beloglovsky, 2017). This means that they learn by investigating, discovering, and problem solving.
They learn by experimentation.
They use trial and error methods to test out different experiences and learn as they go.
If the only toys that infants and toddlers are given are toys that are marketed as educational toys, there is very little room for them to investigate, discover, and problem solve.
The best toys for learning are open ended toys.
These types of toys are also referred to as loose parts.
Sometimes these toys are sold as toys – like blocks, playdough, or balls.
But often they are materials that you already have in your house that you usually use for other purposes – like a wooden spoon, an empty Kleenex box, or a pasta strainer.
These types of toys help infants and toddlers to discover how things work, revel in repetition, and learn as they go.
So, instead of getting caught up in the educational benefits of a toy you are looking at on Amazon or being mesmerized with a fancy educational gadget in the toy aisle at Target, just go through your kitchen drawers and cabinets, find some rarely used spoons and pots, and see how your infant or toddler engages with them.
You might be surprised!
A Common Tool | Educational TV Shows and YouTube Videos
There are lots of TV shows and videos that make claims about teaching language.
And wonderful things can come from watching high-quality programming.
But relying on shows or videos to help your child learn to talk will always fall short.
A 2020 analysis of 42 previous studies of 18,905 children found that the greater the number of hours of screen time, the lower a child’s language skills (Madigan et al, 2020). This was true for both using handheld devices and with the television on in the background.
The same researchers found stronger language skills related to adults joining their children when using devices or when watching shows (Madigan et al, 2020), also known as co-viewing.
The current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggest limiting using screen media, other than video-chatting for children younger than 18 months (AAP Council on Communications and Media, 2016).
For children 18 to 24 months, and for children ages 2-5, the AAP recommends co-viewing high-quality programming to “help children understand what they are seeing and help them apply what they learn to the world around them” (AAP Council on Communications and Media, 2016).
What does co-viewing mean and what does it look like?
→ If you and your child are co-viewing a Ms. Rachel YouTube video about farm animals, you might point to the duck on the video while saying, “Duck.” If Ms. Rachel models the sound that a duck makes, you imitate by saying, “Quack, quack.”
→ If you and your child are co-viewing Daniel Tiger and his father comes into the scene, you might say, “Daddy! That’s his Daddy.” If his little sister starts crying, you might say, “Oh no! She is crying!”
→ If you are your child are co-viewing an episode of Peppa Pig about a birthday party, you might point and say, “Look! A balloon! A yellow balloon.” If the characters are blowing out candles on a cake, you might say, “Cake! Yummy cake!”
In all of these examples, your interactions with your child are the most beneficial part of the learning process. You make the magic happen!
A Common Tool | “First Words” Books
There are hundreds of “first words” books on the market. I’m sure that you have seen these types of books.
They typically have drawings or photographs of common, everyday items with text labeling that item.
Apple.
Flower.
Ball.
These books are fine, but they don’t really represent the most typical early words of infants and toddlers.
Most of these books are filled with common nouns.
But the first ten words spoken by most toddlers are more typically:
→ proper nouns (such as mommy, daddy, and names of siblings or pets)
→ social words (such as hi, bye-bye, and uh-oh)
→ and sound effects (such as baa-baa and vroom) (Caselli et al., 1995).
All of these things are hard to capture in a book so they are typically just not included.
I still think there is a place for reading lots of different kinds of books to infants and toddlers, including “first words” books.
No matter what type of book you read to your child, I suggest keeping this mantra in mind:
«Read less, talk more.»
For infants and toddlers, it is less important to read the exact words printed on the page and way more important to talk about the pictures.
Infants and toddlers need language modeling to learn to talk. And modeling language by talking about something that you are both seeing and experiencing together is the most impactful way to do it.
How to be Your Child’s Best Resource for Learning to Talk
YOU are your child’s best resource for learning to talk!
Here are a few ideas of what you can do.
And all of these can be done before you go to bed tonight!
✕ What not to do: Buy your child an educational toy and hope that your child learns something.
✓ What to do instead: When playing with your child, narrate what your child is seeing and doing. Instead of drawing her attention to something you are looking at, follow her eye gaze and attention so your words match the thing to which she is paying attention.
✕What not to do: Turn on a video and hope that your child learns something.
✓ What to do instead: Watch the video with your child and comment about what you see, point out interesting things, sing along with the songs, and talk about it later when a similar situation comes up.
✕What not to do: Read a “first words” book to your child by simply reading the label on each page.
✓ What to do instead: Talk about each picture. It will sound something like this:
“Apple. I see an apple. Yummy! Yummy apple.”
“Flower. Pink flower. I like the flower. Flower!”
“Ball. Bouncy ball! Big bouncy ball. Ball.”
If Your Child is Slow in Learning to Talk
You may be doing all the right things and your child is still slow in learning to talk.
Move forward and get your child assessed, without guilt and full of peace.
I do not advocate for the “Wait and See” approach.
Knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you have about your child’s development, the better.
Even if your child needs therapy to support her development, YOU are still the key to make that therapy the most effective it can be.
In 2018, researchers looked at studies that had been published between 2000 and 2016 where parents were taught to use language strategies in daily routines (Akemoglu & Meadan, 2018). They found that as the parents used the strategies they were taught, there was an increase in a variety of language and communication skills.
So don’t hesitate.
Go get help, if that is what’s needed.
And then put those skills you learn in place in all your child’s daily routines.
Under all circumstances, YOU are the key!
References and Resources
AAP Council on Communications and Media (2016). Media and Young Minds. Pediatrics, 138,(5). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591
Akemoglu, Y. & Meadan, H. (2018). Parent-implemented language and communication interventions for children with developmental delays and disabilities: A scoping review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 5, 294-309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-018-0140-x
Caselli, M.C., Bates, E., Casadio, P., Fenson, J., Fenson, L., Sanderl, L., & Weir, J. (1995). A cross-linguistic study of early lexical development. Cognitive Development, 10(2), 159–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2014(95)90008-X
Daly, L. & Beloglovsky, M. (2017, October 31). Loose parts 2: Inspiring play with infants and toddlers. Community Playthings. http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2017/loose-parts-play-for-infants-and-toddlers
Hassinger-Das, B., Quinones, A., Diflorio, C., Schwartz, R., Cyrielle, N., Takoukam, T., Salerno, M., & Zosh, J.M. (2021). Looking deeper into the toy box: Understanding caregiver toy selection decisions. Infant Behavior and Development, 62, 101529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101529
Madigan, S., McArthur, B.A., Anhorn, C., Eirich, R., & Christakis, D.A. (2020). Associations between screen use and child language skills: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 174(3). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.0327
The Toy Association. (n.d.). U.S. sales data. The Toy Association. https://www.toyassociation.org/ta/research/data/u-s-sales-data/toys/research-and-data/data/us-sales-data.aspx
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