Late talker therapy will and SHOULD look a lot like play, playing with a purpose. Play is the most meaningful activity for a child, and during play, a child learns speech, language, cognitive, and motor skills.
Therapy may also look a like real, daily life! By targeting language learning during daily routines, your child will learn language skills in a meaningful, motivating way. Learn more below.
Late Talker Therapy Techniques
Treatment Models
For late talkers, there are 2 types of models:
Indirect (parents provide therapy with guidance from professionals)
Direct (speech lan-uage pathologist provides therapy and parents complete home practice to supplement).
Implementation of individualized language techniques. You can find some of my favorites at Toddler Talk.
Toddler Talk 2.0 is a resource to help parents practice evidence-based therapy techniques today!
Progress is monitored on a regular basis through email, phone calls, coaching sessions, or meetings.
Direct Therapy:
A child is seen for individual therapy sessions.
A child has a plan of care with individual goals selected for developmental appropriateness based off of the initial speech-language evaluation.
Parent implements language learning strategies at home, during the week
Parents may provide therapy during therapy sessions under the guidance of a speech-language pathologist. This helps parents practice what to do during the week when the speech pathologist is not present.
Late Talker Therapy Techniques
Child Centered Therapy:
Play-based activities in the child’s natural setting
The child chooses toys and directs play
The speech pathologist uses indirect language stimulation techniques (more on that in a minute)
Clinician Directed Therapy:
The speech-language pathologist creates structured activities, not necessarily play-based
The therapist directs play
The therapist chooses toys/stimuli
Hybrid Approach:
The speech pathologist creates structured play activities
The child engages in structured play with high interest toys
The speech pathologist follows the child’s lead to some extent and guides play/creates a lot of opportunities for communication practice
Language Modeling Tip
Language Stimulation Techniques
Expansions: A child’s utterance is repeated while increasing complexity (grammar and/or semantics) by one unit
Recasts: Recasts are a type of expansion where a child’s utterance is repeated, but the repetition changes the mode of the utterance (i.e., active voice to passive voice)
Choices: A child is given a choice of two options (usually presented in a one-word phrase). This is a great way to ask a question without quizzing and to create more opportunities for communication practice.
One piece at a time: A child is offered a toy or food (one at a time). This way, the child must use communication (word or sign) to request for more
Consider our eBooks series!!! These will TRULY help!!! Toddler Talk 2.0 is for children who are only saying a few words. START HERE. You will learn how to encourage those first words.
If your child is saying more than 50 words, consider Toddler Talking 2.0. It is the boost your child needs!
Bridget is an ASHA certified, practicing speech-language pathologist. She is passionate about providing parents with information on child speech and language development as well as provide functional, easy activities to do at home! Parents have the power to make a real difference. Follow Bridget at Facebook and Pinterest for more fun!
Hi Im a male age 24 i sound like a small girl talking and this has been there the whole life. I tried to neglect this but now it os affecting my marriage.
My son is 13 months old and from a bilingual home (english and french in a french speaking country). At his age, he doesn't seem very capable (or motivated