Kimberly Scanlon, M.A., CCC-SLP

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But for your toddler, single words can also convey a whole lot more than you might imagine. Witness this little one who uses the word “whee” (the exhilarated sound she makes going down a playground slide), to carry a whole conversation with her mom. When her mom asks if she’s having a fun day, our hero replies “whee” twice, which here loosely translate to: “Hey, you know that place the park that I love so much? The place I’m always saying whee? Well, I’m kind of disappointed that you haven’t taken me there.” Then she punctuates it with, “I sad.” Pretty amazing, right? As your child’s early language use grows, you can expect to hear a lot of telegraphic speech - one or two word sentences which are typically stripped of grammatical elements. Sentences like “up” (to signify “please pick me up”) or the request “shoe on.” While this telegraphic speech represents a major step forward in language acquisition for children, here’s an important tip: Our most supportive and constructive response as adults may be to treat these early utterances as meaningful… but then extend, rather than repeat them. In other words - rather than replying in kind with “shoe on,” reply with a fully grammatical response. “Oh, yes, if we’re going outside we do need to put your shoes on!” Doing so consistently will provide the types of linguistic models your child needs to continue advancing to more and more sophisticated and grammatical language. Whee! This little playground fan was shared to IG by indyah.