Focused Stimulation
Teaching your toddler to say new words
One of the most powerful actions you can take as you're teaching your toddler to talk is to say the *real names* of objects or actions many times over. In speech therapy, we call this strategy focused stimulation.
When using the focused stimulation strategy, you want to avoid using non-specific words like “it,” “that,” “one,” “thing,” or “do it” when referring to an item or action. Here are a few examples:
If you and your child are playing with their toy car, say “car” every time you talk about it.
If your child is playing soccer in the yard, say “kick” every time they kick their ball.
If your child is having a snack, say “banana” every time they take another bite of their banana.
Try to keep this in mind whenever you sit down to play with your child — the more frequently your child hears the specific words for items, people, and actions, the faster they will learn.
Tips for using the focused stimulation approach
Tip 1: Avoid using general words
To illustrate the focused stimulation strategy, let's compare how many times your child will hear the word “car” if you use general words versus specific words.
Using general words might sound something like this:
“Let’s play with your __cars__! You can have this one and I’ll have the red one. I’m going to put mine up on top. I’m going to push it and see how far it can roll. Did you see it? My __car__ went so far!”
Using general words, your child heard the word “car” only 2 times.
Now let’s see how many times your child would hear the word “car” if you didn’t use any general words at all.
“Let’s play with your __cars__! You can have the blue __car__ and I’ll have the red __car__. I’m going to put my __car__ up on top. I’m going to push the __car__ and see how far the __car__ can roll. Did you see my __car__ go? My __car__ went so far!”
When you replace the general words with the specific name for the object, your child heard the word car 8 times instead of 2. This makes it much easier for your child to learn the word “car.”
Tip 2: Start with just 10 minutes
The idea of using specific words over and over may feel overwhelming or exhausting at first; it is a new skill for you as a parent, and it’s okay if it takes you some time to adapt.
Start off by choosing one activity for about 10 minutes per day during which you can commit to only using specific words. It can be helpful to set a timer on your phone so you don’t feel like you have to used focused stimulation all day!
As you practice avoiding general words, using specific words when talking to your child will become a habit. Soon, you'll be using specific words all the time without even thinking about it.
Tip 3: Pick different types of words as you practice
You’ll probably start your focused stimulation practice with nouns (repeating the specific names of people, places, or things), but over time it’s a good idea to practice with different types of words as well! The strategy of using specific words can be applied to verbs, prepositions, and adjectives in addition to nouns.
Here are some ideas of how you might use the focused stimulation strategy to practice learning verbs, prepositions, and adjectives.
When you’re doing something with your child, say the name of the verb—or action word—for what you are doing many times. For example, if you're brushing your teeth, you can repeat the word “brush” at least five times throughout the routine.
When you’re talking about where things go, be sure to use specific prepositions—or location words—like “in,” “out,” “on,” and “off.” Avoid saying words like “there” and pointing to where things go. Instead, use gestures as you say prepositions to talk about where things are or where they should go. For example, while pointing, say “your toothbrush goes in the cup.”
If you are describing objects to your child, use a variety of adjectives (descriptive words). For example, “My toothbrush is big, your toothbrush is small.” Descriptive words are more abstract—and therefore often harder to learn—than nouns or verbs, but by repeatedly using adjectives, you can facilitate the learning process for your child.
Focused Stimulation Activity
In this activity, you are going to focus on ways that you can set your child up for success when learning new words or sounds.
We’re going to walk you through the process of how to choose an activity and choose what key words to focus on within that activity, using lots of repetition, to teach your child new words.
Step 1: Pick a time of day that you want to practice
Think about when in your day best fits your energy profile, as well as your family’s schedule. For example, in my house I would rather focus first thing in the morning, but my partner would need to wait until after having coffee. Pick a time that you’re most likely to be energized, patient, and interactive with your child. And full disclosure: neither of us are at our best just after getting home from a long day at work.
What time of day works best for you? _______________
For other caregivers: ________________________________
Step 2: How long do you want to focus on this?
Ideally this time is one-on-one with your child, with minimal distractions present. So turn off the TV, put your cell phone away and try to have time without siblings or others around. How long do you think you and your child can play this activity together? Choose how many minutes YOU want to aim for:
5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes
Step 3: Now the fun part, thinking of activities.
What is something that your child likes to do/play with, that you also enjoy with them? It can be anything, literally! Anything that you engage in with each other.
Here are a few ideas. Choose any of these that could be a good fit for your child and family:
Building with blocks
Going on a walk outside together (not an exercise-focused run)
Playing with a baby doll, stuffed animal or character toy/figure
Pretend food/kitchen
Playing outside with a ball
Listening to music and having a dance party
Car races
Dress up
Doctor kit play
Creating art or coloring
Now, in your mind or on a sheet of paper, list 1-3 other ideas you have _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________
Step 4: From that list you created, choose one activity to work on and write it below:
Well you can’t write it here, but write it down on your own paper or maybe in the Notes on your phone.
You can also download this focused stimulation activity handout for free so you can follow along here.
Step 5: With that activity in mind, write down 5-10 words that could be used while playing/doing that activity.
These are potential key words to practice. Think of nouns (person, places, things), adjectives (describing words) and verbs (action words). We are trying to avoid non-specific words and focusing on these specific and functional words instead. There’s two examples at the end of this post if you need ideas 😊
Now make your list:
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
That’s a great list of words! While you are doing that activity, we don’t want you to try to remember all those 10 words!! It’s better for you and your child to be more focused and have more repetition of a few words.
Step 6: With that in mind, how many words do you want to focus on and use with repetition
I recommend somewhere between 2-5 key words for each time you play this activity.
Do you want to focus on:
2 words?
3 words?
4 words?
5 words?
Step 7: Based on the number of words you’ve chosen to work on, pick that number of key words from the list you wrote above. Write them down in your personal notes or on your Toddler Talk handout.
__________
__________
__________
You did it!! This is your magic list of key words to practice during this activity with your child! You did it! Now you get to play.
While playing, Keep your list visible to help you remember!
Trust me, it’s so much easier when you have your list out!
Using the focused stimulation approach in other activities.
Now that you’ve worked through this handout, you can use these same key words, or other potential key words from your long list, each time you play that activity with your child this week.
You can also think through or work through this process with another activity next week. It will get easier each time you do it. 😃
Sample potential key word lists for 2 fun toddler play activities
Using the focused stimulation approach when playing ball outside, your specific words may include:
Ball
Bounce
Throw
Kick
Ouch
Oops
Stuck
My turn
Me (ex throw it to me) Try again
Using the focused stimulation approach when building with blocks, your specific words may include:
Block
Up
Crash
On top
Oh no
More
Help
Knock it down
My (ex. my block, my turn)
Big
More at home speech therapy strategies:
Face to Face: The easiest speech therapy strategy - https://toddlertalk.com/blog/getting-face-to-face
Questions Versus Comments: The power of what you say - https://toddlertalk.com/blog/comments-over-questions
Child Led Play: How following your child’s imagination can help them learn! - https://toddlertalk.com/blog/toddler-imagination
Written by: Stephanie Burgener-Vader, MA, CCC-SLP© 2020-2022. Stephanie Keffer, MS CCC-SLP. All Rights Reserved.
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