Home Talking Program: Help Your Child Start Talking

Who this program is for

• Toddlers who are slower than you’d expect to start using words
• Children who clearly understand you but say very little back
• Little ones who point, tug your hand or gesture instead of talking
• Any parent who wants to actively help their child’s language along
• Families waiting for speech therapy, or who can’t easily get to it

Your step-by-step roadmap

Move at your child’s pace, not the calendar’s — the “weeks” are just a gentle order, not a race. Feel free to repeat any stage for as long as it’s helping.

1. Week 1 — Get face to face

   Make yourself easy to watch and copy.
   • Get right down to your child’s eye level to play and chat — on the floor together, or face to face across the table.
   • Follow their lead: play with whatever’s caught their eye, rather than steering them towards your idea of fun.
   • Say your bit, then pause and wait — give a full five seconds for any kind of response at all.

   Try this: Sit facing your child, not beside them — when they can watch your mouth, the sounds come far more easily.

   Mark week done

2. Week 2 — Talk about the here and now

   Put simple words to whatever your child is doing.
   • Narrate the play in short bursts — “car go”, “big splash”, “teddy up”.
   • Stay one step ahead: if they use no words, model single ones; if they’ve got single words, put two together.
   • Name whatever they look at or reach for, the very moment they show interest.

   Try this: Less really is more — a flood of long sentences is far harder to copy than one clear word said warmly, over and over.

   Mark week done

3. Week 3 — Build in reasons to communicate

   Gently create little moments where talking is worth the effort.
   • Offer a choice: hold up two things and ask “milk or water?”, then wait.
   • Pop a favourite toy in sight but out of reach, so they have to ask you — in any way at all — for help.
   • Pause partway through familiar songs and routines, and let them fill the gap.

   Try this: Accept ANY attempt — a sound, a point, a glance — then say the word for them and hand the thing straight over.

   Mark week done

4. Week 4 — Expand and repeat

   Grow what they say, and keep it fun.
   • When your child offers a word, echo it back and add one more — they say “ball”, you say “big ball”.
   • Share simple books every day, but chat about the pictures rather than only reading the words.
   • Sing the same few action songs daily — repetition is exactly how words stick.

   Try this: Repeat new words over and over across the day — children often need to hear a word dozens of times before it comes out.

   Mark week done

Little tricks that make it work

• Switch off any background TV — quiet makes your voice easier to pick out and copy.
• Use gestures and simple signs alongside your words; they support talking, they don’t hold it back.
• Treat every attempt as if it were a full sentence — that’s what gives a child the nerve to try again.
• Slow your own speech down a touch and lean on the key words.
• Keep it playful and never a test — “say it!” demands nearly always backfire.
• Two languages at home is absolutely fine; it doesn’t cause delay, so keep speaking the language you know best.