is an exciting time when it comes to language development – there’s nothing quite like hearing a child say the name of a loved one and begin to navigate their world using words.
Parents and caregivers commonly ask, “when do kids start talking?” While children do develop speech and language at different rates, it is during toddlerhood that most children will begin to transition from the coos and cries of babyhood and begin to express themselves using language.
This natural curiosity for spoken word, combined with some intentional actions from families and caregivers, can create the perfect environment for a child’s language development to flourish.
Understanding Speech and Language Development in Toddlers
There are many ways children communicate before they begin speaking. Language development starts with listening to the voices, words, tone and interactions around them.
As babies and toddlers grow, they use non-verbal communication such as facial expressions, gestures and eye contact to express needs, share ideas and engage with others. They may point, raise their eyebrows or shake their hands to communicate.
Toddlers develop communication skills through language-rich environments, play and opportunities to practise interacting with others. By 12 months, many children understand familiar names and words and may use pointing or simple words to start conversations and make requests. Around 2–3 years, they begin joining ideas together using words like “and.”
Following your child’s interests, talking about them, and pausing to allow time for a response encourages meaningful communication.
Why Early Speech and Language Development Matters
Spoken word plays an important role in our world – its one of the key ways we connect with each other. It is vitally important your child has the tools they need to communicate their own ideas, to listen to others, and to express their wants and preferences.
Children’s communication skills support their learning, play, and social connections. Being able to communicate can also help keep your child safe and well. Your child can practice using words and communicating with others through everyday activities and play. They don’t need fancy toys or screen time to learn words and how to communicate. Instead, they need time to practice having one-one interactions with a trusted adult.
When children can express themselves, they are able to see themselves in the world and gain a greater understanding of the world around them.
Benefits for Learning and Social Skills
Knowing words is particularly useful to progress your child’s learning and social skills.
When it comes to learning, as children become aware of how words and objects connect and relate, they increasingly notice the relationship between things in our world. The oven is hot. The ice is cold. The teddy is soft and cuddly. This is an important leap in learning.
Children use their whole body senses to explore the world, and language is one way they will express, process and store the information they are collecting about the world. Having a range of vocabulary and some developing language skills will assist children in problem-solving in play, making decisions and thinking through challenges.
Being able to listen to and follow instructions is also important, and developing communication skills will mean your toddler can increasingly listen to and follow through on the guidance you provide; like finding their water bottle, picking up their shoes or putting a toy away.
This leads to a major confidence boost as children are increasingly able to look after their belongings and make choices that matter to them. Socially, being able to communicate and having the words to engage with others is paramount as toddlers begin to develop an interest in playing with and alongside other children.
In our Early Learning settings, toddlers work with our supportive educators to practice communicating effectively with their peers – by asking to play with someone, offering to share a toy and by telling educators and others what their favourite games are.
Building Confidence Through Communication
When children can communicate, their confidence grows. It can be exciting for toddlers to recognise they can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to something, to ask for a particular food for breakfast or let you know what they’d like to play next. Listening to these ideas and helping bring them to life, where appropriate, is a powerful way to build children’s confidence and show your child that their ideas are valuable and valid.
Having a good repertoire of language makes it possible for children to share their thoughts and feelings, to express themselves. Around toddlerhood, children are beginning to understand how their thoughts are their own, and they need to say things out loud in order to be understood. This is a major cognitive transition and part of developing their sense of self.
Having access to a range of language and being able to name everyday objects will help your child to be able to exert more independence. With the use of language, children can change their minds, show their thinking and let you know what they are planning to do next. It can be wonderful to hear children describe their intentions and let you know what they are thinking about!
You can support this by inviting your child to share what they think, to make a choice out of two or more choices and follow through with their ideas both during play and over the course of the day. When children see they can help co-construct their world, they will begin to truly see themselves as effective communicators.
Practical Ways to Encourage Speech and Language Development in Toddlers
When encouraging your child to communicate, it’s important your child doesn’t feel pressed to speak before they are ready. Likewise, there is no need to correct mispronunciations or push your child to rote learn words. What’s more important is to immerse your child in a world full of communication and language, and to take a playful approach to communication.
Here are some ways to encourage speech and language development in your toddler in playful ways at home:
Word Games
Once your child has a good range of vocabulary, playing word games like seeing their grown ups ‘make mistakes’ with language can be really exciting. For example, handing your child the blue cup but announcing it as the green cup – and then pulling a face to let your child know you’re trying to trick them – can allow you to do a playful knowledge-check on what your child knows about some of the common words in their world.
Model Vocabulary
Try to use descriptive words, different words and a combination of long and short words when you describe the world to your child. Remember, your child repeating a word back to you isn’t the goal, many children are listening, comprehending/understanding and processing the words they hear, even if they won’t use the word on their own yet. At this age and stage, immersing your child in a language rich environment is the aim – and that means using lots of different and interesting words yourself.
Use Different Voices
Communicating doesn’t need to be about duties or instructions – it can be really engaging for children to see the adults in their life being silly, goofing around and using funny voices at unexpected times. Not only is the change in pitch and tone highly engaging, but your child will also see you as a playful person – which is terrific for building a kind and trusting relationship.
Talk to Your Toddler Throughout the Day
It’s easy to underestimate the power of your child simply hearing spoken words across the day. But by narrating what you are doing, or describing your child’s actions back to them is doing wonders for your child’s language and speech development.
Repetition is key
Match words with actions, routines and everyday activities to help your toddler learn how words connect to everything in the world around them. Repetition of words with the daily rhythm of the day is very reinforcing for children, and your child will soon pick up on the words that connect best to each part of their routine.
Songs and Rhymes
The rhythm and cadence of songs and rhymes are highly attractive to children, so finding ways to weave them into the day can be helpful, particularly if you are trying to invite your child to become more of a communicator across the day. Singing and rhyming is a low-stakes way for your child to join you in language play.
Read Books Together Every Day
Reading storybooks is one of the most powerful things you can do to increase your child’s language skills and word knowledge. Exposing your child to new words, and a wide range of vocabulary in this critical period of brain development creates the neural pathways that will support later language learning through school and life.
When reading, point to objects and name the things you see on the pages. You can read the words on the page or skip the story line completely and simply chat about what you can see on the page. Doing this helps encourage your child to truly engage with the text, and ‘read’ the pictures.
Ask closed and open questions
Asking your child questions is a great thing to do, even if your toddler doesn’t respond to you just yet.
Sometimes, supporting good communication skills is about showing children where they will progress to next, and asking open ended questions is a good example of this. An example could be, ‘What do you feel like for dinner?’ In time, your child will be able to respond to your questions with their own ideas.
For right now, you might ask your child closed questions like, ‘What would you like for dinner’, and give an option of two choices, ‘Chicken Pasta or Chicken Rice?’
Asking closed questions that call for either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, or a choice of two options, is a precursor skill to understanding the pattern of asking and answering questions.
Power of the Pause
When speaking with your toddler, remember to leave time between what you say, to invite your child to respond. Toddlers need time to not only process what they’ve heard, but to think of what they will say in return. Pause and allow your child time to really see the invitation you’re giving them to connect with you through language.
Signs Your Toddler May Need Extra Support
- Your toddler may need some additional support if you notice they don’t do the following:
Does not point, wave, or use other gestures by 12-15 months. - Does not respond to their name by 12 months.
- Is not saying any words by 18 months.
- Does not put two words together by 24 months, or
- Loses the speech or social skills they once had
Seeing one of these traits in your child may not always mean your child needs additional support, but it could be an indicator. Remember that children progress in their language and speech development as different rates, and there are many variables that affect this for each child.
How Speech Pathologists Can Help Toddlers
Speech pathologists play an important role in supporting toddlers’ communication development. If you have concerns about your child’s speech, language, understanding, social communication, feeding, or early literacy skills, a speech pathologist can provide guidance and support in a friendly, family-centred way.
The process usually begins with an assessment, which may involve observing your child at play, talking with parents or caregivers, and using age-appropriate activities to understand their strengths and areas where they may need support. Assessments help identify whether a child is developing as expected or could benefit from additional assistance.
Based on the assessment, speech pathologists create tailored therapy plans to suit each child’s needs. Therapy may focus on building vocabulary, improving speech sounds, supporting understanding and following instructions, developing social communication skills, or addressing feeding and swallowing concerns.
Sessions are often play-based, engaging, and designed to fit naturally into a toddler’s everyday routines.
Early support can make a meaningful difference by helping children communicate their needs, build confidence, strengthen relationships, and participate more fully in home, childcare, and community settings.
Professional support is not about labelling a child—it is about helping them reach their potential and giving families practical strategies to support development every day.
When to Seek Professional Advice
It’s ok to have questions about your child’s progress when it comes to communication, expression and speech. You can consult with your maternal child health nurse or family doctor at any time. From there, your doctor might refer your child to a speech pathologist or other early intervention health professional.
If something doesn’t feel right, it’s best to check in with a medical professional to ensure the right supports are in place.
Detecting the need for support early is one of the best things you can do if you are worried your child might need a little extra help communicating. Strategies to support in the toddler years are often small adjustments that can make a meaningful difference to your child’s progress.
Supporting Your Toddler’s Communication Journey
In most cases, families may be surprised to learn they are already doing much of what it takes to set their children up to be strong and confident communicators. It can be reassuring to hear that actions like reading together daily, narrating the day and singing nursery rhymes are creating the ideal environment for your child to build their communication and speech skills.
Every time you spend time speaking with, and listening to, your child, you’re doing an incredible job at supporting your child’s language development.
FAQs
Can screen time affect my toddler’s speech development?
Screen time can affect speech development simply because language is learned through two-way, back and forth communication. When children are engaged in passive screen time, they receive less opportunity to be in dialogue with a trusted adult.
What if my toddler speaks clearly but uses very few words?
You can encourage your child by naming objects in their world, narrating your day, and by using lots of two-word phrases, like, ‘More fruit?’ or ‘big puddle’ to help show your child how words can work together to add meaning.
Are there differences in speech development between boys and girls?
Speech development is not gendered, although all children develop words at different rates and in different orders. There are many variables that will influence a child’s language development.
How can I support my toddler if English isn’t our first language?
Speaking your home language is one of the best things you can do for your child if you are supporting them to develop language skills. You can read more about this here
Can music or rhythm-based activities improve speech?
Yes it can! Singing and rhymes are attractive to children and can help engage them in communication with you. It’s also a great way to increase the number of unique words your child will hear across the day.
