#422 Imitation Matters! Building Verbal Imitation in Late Talkers

Teach Me To Talk

Do you know the #1 skill all late talkers are missing? They don't know how to imitate words... which is always linked to late talking. In fact, imitating can be the one thing that separates late talkers from toddlers who are already talking. So... how do we teach nonverbal toddlers to imitate? Obviously, we can't start by trying to teach them to say words. They're not able to repeat words no matter how much we beg, bribe, and plead! What most parents of late talkers don't know is that there are "levels" of imitation that all kids learn before they begin to talk... whether a child talks late or on time. During infancy, babies learn these levels of imitation easily and naturally as they mature and grow. When late talking occurs, we know that a child has gotten "stuck" in a level of imitation and hasn't been able to progress to imitating words. When this happens, we must determine where they're "stuck," meet them there, and then help them learn to imitate more complex actions, gestures, sounds, and until they're developmentally ready to imitate real words. Once they're imitating easily and frequently, we've turned them into full-time imitators, which leads to a child who talks! In this 8 part podcast series Building Verbal Imitation in Late Talkers, learn an effective hierarchy for teaching imitation skills to late talking toddlers and preschoolers using evidence based, science-backed strategies that emphasize imitation as the KEY component. This method delivers a practical framework for knowing where to begin working with a late talking child, provides ideas for what to try when a young child’s progress stalls, and can serve as your new approach when your standard methods don’t seem to be adequate for a particular child’s language delays. Join pediatric speech-language pathologist Laura Mize, M.S., CCC-SLP of teachmetotalk.com for this podcast.