Help Your 13 Months Old Mimic Sounds
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All parents are keen to hear their toddlers speak. However, they may not be aware that lending a helping hand can actually speed up the process. Make your toddler learn to babble and imitate various sounds with the help of a few tips.
For a parent, seeing their children reach various developmental milestones can be very exciting. Learning to speak is one of the most important and also the most exciting. However, teaching a child to talk is not as easy as it sounds. It takes time and plenty of patience.
How To Teach Toddlers To Imitate Sounds: The Right Approach
1. The Art of Imitation
Imitation can pave the way for more complicated speaking skills, so use it to your advantage. However, before helping your 13-month-old toddler to imitate words, you need to start small as he’s too young to understand your intentions. Begin by teaching him to mimic different actions. You can try simple movements like banging on the table top, clapping, waving and raising hands. You may have to hold your child’s hands initially to help him mimic you. Once he understands the game, he’ll do it himself and will be more than willing to. When he’s mastered actions, teach him to blow through his mouth or fake a cough. This is the first step towards helping your toddler learn to imitate sounds. ||
2. Use Simple Sounds
The next step is to introduce your child to a few easy words that are sounds. For instance, say ‘Yes’ when you move your head up and down. Use the word ‘No’ while moving your head from one side to the other. You can use different words like ‘Wow’, ‘Oops’, ‘Yay’ and ‘Ouch’ for other actions to get your child acquainted to the idea.
3. Do It With Animal Sounds
Many toddlers are enamoured by animals and love watching them and listening to the sounds they make. It’s been found that children find it easier to imitate animal sounds rather than words, so make the most of this. Introduce your child to the sounds and ask him to imitate them. This is one of the best ways for building verbal imitation in toddlers. To encourage your child, use a few animal-shaped toys. Toy tigers, elephants, birds and dogs are good picks. Once your toddler starts enjoying this exercise, you’ll no longer need to try too hard to get him to mimic.
4. Use His Favourite Toys
Use your child’s favourite toys and think of some simple sounds and words that you can associate with them. You can use words like ‘ zoom’ and ‘vroom’ for cars and ‘choo choo’ for trains. You want to choose sounds and words that are easy for your toddler to imitate. Anything that’s too challenging will only discourage him from mimicking them. If he still finds it difficult, add intonation as kids find it easier to learn this way.
By teaching your little one to imitate sounds, you help in his language and speech development. Parents can use different methods to help their toddler reach the talking milestone.
