Teaching Toddlers to Repeat Words

January 15, 2021 Stephanie Keffer

When can babies repeat words?

Most of the time, babies will repeat words like “mama” and “dada” that they hear other people say before they say those same words on their own. Children usually say their first words between the ages of 10 and 14 months, and they will repeat words just before saying their first word.

If your little one isn’t repeating words or hasn’t started talking on their own yet, these tips and activities will be a fun and exciting way to grow their communication at home.

Toddlers learn through imitation

Children learn how to do most things by imitating or copying others, and talking is no different.

Toddlers generally learn new words in three main steps:

1) They listen to words many times and learn their meaning.

2) They imitate words said by others.

3) They begin to use words on their own.

When you are teaching your child to imitate words you say, there are a couple of important things to keep in mind. Repetition is very important when learning new words; your toddler needs to hear you say a word many times, try to imitate your word several times, and then continue practicing the word to improve their pronunciation. Also keep in mind that your child will be much more motivated to practice saying words that are meaningful to them or get them something they want. Lastly, after you say words that you want your toddler to repeat, remember to pause and be quiet to give your child the opportunity to imitate you without you having to ask them to do it.

Tips for teaching toddlers to repeat words

Tip 1 - Imitate exclamatory remarks

Begin with exclamatory remarks like “woah,” “uh-oh,” and “oh no!” Not only are these remarks fun for children to imitate, but when you make an exclamation like “Woah!” your mouth moves much more dramatically than during normal conversation. For this reason, exclamatory remarks are often easier for children to imitate because they can clearly see how your mouth is moving.

To practice, position yourself in front of your child so they can see your face when you speak — this way, they can observe the specific movements of your mouth and imitate you. Practice with these fun words during play — for example, saying “oh no!” when a stack of toys is knocked over. Even if your child doesn’t imitate the sound, they may imitate the pitch of your voice, which is excellent progress toward imitating the full remark.

Tip 2 - Don’t tell your child to “say” a word

The next strategy is to avoid explicitly telling your child to say a word. Often, parents will tell their child, “Say ball. Ball. Say ball.” or “Say apple” when they want their child to say a word. While this strategy may work for some children, we as speech therapists encourage you to throw this old way of teaching words out the window.

More often than not, when parents ask their children to “say” a word, their child does not respond or participate at all. Toddlers can easily become frustrated if you continually ask them to do something that they find difficult or annoying.

Remember, children are programmed to imitate; it’s how they learn. Trust that if you continually practice saying the real names of the things around you and the activities you are doing, rather than using vague words like “it” or “that,”, your child will imitate words when they are ready. When you simply repeat words many times over, you are playing the long game with your child and practicing language skills without them even knowing. Think of learning to talk as a marathon, not a sprint!

As an added benefit, your child will probably find communicating with you much more enjoyable this way than if you constantly pressure them to “say” things.

Tip 3 - Forced choice questions

Another way to help your child learn to imitate words is to use forced-choice questions, in which you offer two options as the possible responses. For example, “Do you want an apple or a banana?” Imitating a word in response to a forced-choice question makes it natural for your child to imitate you to ask for something. After all, it is the path of least resistance for your child to get what they want, and toddlers love the path of least resistance.

You can practice this strategy during just about any activity. Offer your child a choice of two possibilities: “Do you want an egg or a cracker?” If your child responds by imitating one of the words you said, you should give them the thing immediately in order to reinforce their imitation in the future. When you respond immediately, they learn to associate imitating you with getting something they want. If your child does not immediately imitate a word but instead responds by reaching for or pointing to what they want, try saying the word by itself one more time. For example, if your child reaches for the apple, say “egg” on its own and wait up to five seconds to see if they imitate the word before giving them the hard boiled egg. You can even say “egg” and wait two or three times in a row to see if your child will imitate the word. After this, whether or not your child has imitated you, give your child the apple or named item.

Don’t expect your child’s imitation to be perfect on the first few tries. Incorporate this strategy during normal activities on a regular basis to encourage your child to imitate more words. Snack time, bath time, and getting dressed are great opportunities to offer your child forced-choice questions.

Download our PDF activities guide for teaching toddler’s to imitate words ↓

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Sing Along Activity

Materials:

preferred song to listen to

Set-up:

Familiar songs give us a great opportunity to practice imitating a word. Choose a familiar song such as one of these, that has a lot of repetition, and also has some fun hand movements:

Baby Shark: hands up on your head like a shark fin
Wheels on the Bus: hands rolling around each other
5 Little Monkeys: hold up 5 fingers and make them jump
Daddy Finger: hold up 1 finger at a time and make it jump
Row Row Row your Boat: rowing motion with arms

There are so many more, you can Google “finger play songs” for ideas and videos

What to do:

Turn off other distractions, so that your child is just focused on you, the song words, and the movements you are doing. Tell them “Let’s sing _____”, while doing the movement you’re practicing. Then begin to sing, pairing the movement at the right time. This activity isn’t focused on the movements, but they are still a great component to use to keep your child engaged and participating.

Many of these songs have a repeating phrase or word within it, that is where we’ll focus. With that song in mind, determine what word or phrase repeats itself, such as part of the chorus.

See examples, with the repetition parts in bold:

Baby Shark do do do do do do
The Wheels on the Bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.
5 Little Monkeys… Mama called the doctor and the doctor said “no more monkeys jumping on the bed!”
Daddy finger, Daddy finger, where are you?
Row Row Row your boat …

These repeating phrases are what we’re trying to get your child to imitate.

What to say:

Sing this song with your child, paired with the familiar gestural movement. Give extra energy and emotion to that repetition chorus. After singing it a few times, as you get to that repetition part, pause expectantly, to see if your child will try to fill in the next part of the song.

So if you’re singing Baby Shark, you would sing:

“Grandma Shark do do do do do do.

Grandma Shark do do do do do do.

Grandma Shark *pause expectantly* wait to see if your child tries to imitate the “do do do” part.

If not, you can quietly start the “do do do” and see if they join in.

If still not, that’s ok, go ahead and keep singing. But know that you started setting the stage for your child taking a turn to imitate that part of the song.

Try the song again later, doing it the same as above--leaving that pause time before the chorus to allow your child to try to imitate a word or phrase.

Any attempts should be praised, even if what they actually said is not even close! Great job trying! :)

Looking for more activities to practice imitating words at home?

Download our PDF activities guide for teaching toddler’s to imitate words (this activity + 2 more!) ↓