yes, therapy helps!
How to teach my son to talk: 6 tips

How to teach my son to talk: 6 tips

March 28, 2024

Create the right situations for a child to learn to speak It is one of the basic concerns and objectives of many fathers and mothers, especially if they are new. It is normal, since language is one of the basic psychological competences; thanks to him, children can create abstract concepts logically articulated with each other, so that they begin to have a relatively realistic understanding of nature, society and themselves. Without language, intelligence is not developed.

Although as parents, mothers and guardians we can not guarantee that a child perfectly learns to speak in 100% of cases, normally it is possible to create the right conditions to internalize the necessary skills to do it and practice it. For know how to teach a son or daughter to speak You have to adapt to your way of thinking, but also be clear that we have a limited power to influence it.


  • Related article: "The 4 stages of language development"

How to teach my son to talk?

Below we will see several key ideas to do everything possible to generate an effective language learning in our children. However, we must bear in mind that Each case is unique and the conditions in which each child grows are also unique. .

On the other hand, whatever happens, you can not blame the children if we perceive that they do not advance at the desired pace. In extreme cases, it is even possible that this delay is due to neurological alterations, so that learning can only serve to avoid a greater delay. In any case, these are exceptional cases.


1. Make them the protagonists

Forget the format of the master classes in which the apprentice is silent and listens and the teacher speaks transmitting the information that the other must internalize and memorize. Language is something that develops in contexts of real interaction, and for that reason, to teach children to speak, we must generate these dynamics, even if it is by resorting to fictional characters who talk about them and tell stories.

In practice, this means that we should not limit ourselves to exposing our children to language. You have to make them participate in it, both listening and saying things . Thus, by helping to speak to us, even if it is interrupting, we will make them feel more motivated every time to use language to understand the world and the interesting stories that it entails.

  • Maybe you're interested: "The 6 stages of childhood (physical and psychic development)"

2. Do not describe, narrates

To capture the interest of children about an aspect of reality that they will know through language, it is much better to do so through stories and narratives than through descriptions. These stories call more attention , because they have a beginning, a node and an outcome, and promise the resolution of a situation, while the descriptions refer to static realities that, although they can also be instructive, have less power when it comes to claiming the interest of the children.


3. Use words that you use in your day to day

Centuries of formal education have made some parents adopt a too formal mentality when it comes to teaching their children to speak, as if it were a traditional school implanted at home. But in the early stages of childhood, learning must take the form of a game. One that involves certain challenges, but a game after all, based on situations of real interaction with real people (regardless of whether they embody characters that are not).

Therefore, we must use concepts and references that the child uses in their day to day. For example, if you like animals, make animals the protagonists of a narrative that we use to make them feel appealed by a story in which they can participate by asking questions and questioning the protagonists.

4. Do not put abstract goals

When asked "How to teach my son to talk?", Some parents sin too closely to a way of reasoning proper to adults, and not the little ones. In such early stages of the development of childhood, we must take as reference certain milestones in the acquisition of language that is common, but it is not good to be very rigid with it. In the first months and years of life, it is difficult for the children to understand what is happening in regards to a learning process and the expectations that this generates in their relatives .

So, you have to stimulate them with concrete situations, but we should not speak to them arguing in abstract terms referring to goals that go beyond the here and now . For example, asking them to increase their vocabulary by looking at the words used by adults is not recommended, nor asking them to learn to use the conjugations of the verbs. Doing so would create frustrating situations.

5. Question

If you are asking from time to time about conclusions that emerge from the explained, you create a mechanism for the children to put the five senses in the situation of interaction through language. That makes it easier for them to learn more in less time. Also, in this way it helps to not only listen, but also to talk .

6. Congratulate on the advances

Another way to make our sons and daughters learn to speak is to show signs of joy in the face of advances. In very early stages of childhood this already works by the simple fact of creating sounds associated with positive emotions, and when it has already begun to develop a sophisticated conception of the world and of the Self, it reinforces self-esteem and favors the involvement in the learning.


Baby and Toddler Milestones, Dr. Lisa Shulman (March 2024).


Similar Articles