Your fingers can be powerful tools in helping your young child develop speech and language. The following are three ideas that I have found helpful in my speech and language therapy practice. I hope you find them useful too.
finger indication
Fingertips will help your child watch the movement of their lips and tongue to see how sounds are produced. Gently touch your lip with your index finger while saying words to your child. For short words, tap once for each sound. For longer words, tap once for each syllable.
marking the rhythm of the fingers
Finger rhythm will help your child: 1. Put more words together, and 2. Understand more of what you say. As you speak, hold up one finger at a time for each word you say. This helps your child see how to put words together and see that their sentences are made up of separate words. The more you do this, the easier it becomes.
To tap your fingers and point at the same time, use repeat. Say the single word first with your finger and then say the word in a sentence with your finger or the other way around. Either way, the more you repeat, the more your child will learn.
Expansion
Expansion helps your child put more words together. When your child says a single word, answer two words. For example, if your child says “ball,” reply “red ball,” “my ball,” “lost ball,” whatever fits. When your child says two words, answer three, and so on. To make this more powerful, use finger rhythm as you repeat the words.
I hope these ideas help. You will be amazed what your fingers can do!
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