Teaching Toddlers To Talk In Sentences
As your toddler’s vocabulary grows, they will begin to combine more words and speak in phrases of increasing complexity to express more diverse ideas.
When teaching your toddler to talk in sentences, the first step after your child is using 2 word phrases is to teach them to copy 3 words together.
Most toddlers begin imitating three-word phrases at around 2 ½ years of age. We want to encourage this type of imitation as much as possible — after they become comfortable imitating phrases with three or more words, your child will begin to create new longer phrases on their own!
Tips for teaching toddlers to imitate 3 word sentences
Tip 1 - Repeat back and add another word
To begin, repeat back a two-word phrase that your toddler says to you, and add another word or two. For example, if your child says “Mommy eat,” you can say back, “Mommy eats a bagel.” Similarly, if your child says a single word, you can add two words to create a statement with three words or more. If your child says, “Mommy,” and points to your shirt, you can say back, “The shirt is mommy’s.”
By taking something that they said and expanding it, you are showing your child something they could say next time. Leading by example is a subtle strategy to build your child’s language skills that you can employ at any time. With this strategy, don’t always expect your child to imitate you after you expand on what they said — these are complex skills you’re working on. If they do attempt to imitate you, make sure to react excitedly and repeat what they said in a happy voice to validate their attempt.
Tip 2 - Use short but correct examples
At this stage, it’s best to give your child examples of phrases as you would actually say them. You probably don’t say “Daddy go” in your everyday life, but you might say, “Daddy goes to the store.” Even though your child may not be able to imitate all the words in your model sentence, they are very good at copying the words that hold the most meaning. So, your child might repeat back, “Daddy goes store.” This is progress!
When modeling more complex phrases, you can also think about using tone and volume to emphasize the words that are most important for your child to imitate.
Tip 3 - Build up phrases
Next, you can start working on expanding shorter phrases into longer, more complex phrases. When you repeat back phrases for your child, you can say the same idea many times and build it up. If your child says, “Mommy eat,” for example, you can say back “Mommy eats an apple,” and then, “Mommy is eating an apple because she’s hungry.” Here, you are providing your child with several repetitions of the key words in the phrase while helping to expand their understanding of the context. As they learn the meaning of new words and listen to you combine them in different ways, they will get closer and closer to saying longer combinations of words on their own.
Download our at home practice guide - 3 activities for teaching toddler’s to copy 3 word phrases ↓
Teaching Toddlers To Talk in 3 Word Sentences Activity
Bath Time for Toys
Materials:
An action figure, animal, baby doll, etc. that your child likes that can get wet.
Washcloth, sponge, or other item that you can wash with
Bathtub, bowl with water, or a water table
Set-up:
You can do this activity during regular bath time. In which case, set up bath time as you normally would, making sure that your washable toy and washcloth are on hand and that you have set aside extra time to play.
What to do:
In this activity you will be helping your child learn to make 3-word phrases with the words “wash”+ animal name + body part.
Pick up the water toy and give it a dramatic sniff. Tell your child, “Kitty is stinky, we need to wash her! Hmm, I’m going to WASH KITTY’S ARM.” Scrub Kitty’s arm while saying “wash Kitty’s arm” a few times. Then ask, “what’s next?” Every time your child gives you a 1-word or 2-word answer, say it back to them with 3 words.
Don’t forget to give your child plenty of turns to wash the toy as well. After you have shown them how to combine with the word “wash” a few times, try sitting silently while your child plays and see if they say any word combinations on their own.
What to say:
When you and your toddler give your toys a bath, it might sound like this:
You: Okay, I washed Kitty’s arm. What’s next?
Child: Wash tail.
You: WASH KITTY’S TAIL. Here I go, I WASH KITTY’S TAIL. [dramatically scrubs tail]
You: Okay, I washed Kitty’s tail. What next?
Child: [says nothing or says something unrelated]
You: Should we WASH KITTY’S EYE or WASH KITTY’S PAW?
Child: Kitty paw.
You: I WASH your PAW, KITTY! Wash Kitty’s paws. My, how did you get so stinky?
Download our at home practice guide - 3 activities for teaching toddler’s to copy 3 word phrases ↓
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Created In Collaboration By:
Stephanie Keffer, MS CCC-SLP
Stephanie Burgener-Vader, MA CCC-SLP
Melissa Sartori, MS CCC-SLP
Yvette Faire-Bostick, MS CCC-SLP
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