One of the first places to start when it comes to helping children communicate is to know and understand important communication milestones. Before a child can talk, they learn to use a variety of highly effective gestures to make their wants, needs, and feelings known. When a child isn’t using many gestures, it may be a sign that their verbal communication development could also become delayed. Check the following list see if your child has developed 16 different gestures by 16 months old. 

Some common gestures include:

1. Shaking their head ‘yes’ and ‘no’
2. Raising their arms to indicate they want to be picked up
3. Clapping to show pleasure & happiness
4. Pointing to request something, or comment/label on something they see
5. Reaching for a desired item
6. Blowing kisses
7. Giving an object to an adult
8. Showing an adult something they like
9. Waving ‘hi’ and ‘bye’
10. Tapping items with their fingers
11. Putting their finger up to their mouth to indicate “be quiet” or “shhhh”!
12. Giving a thumbs up
13. Giving a ‘high 5’
14. Pushing away unwanted items
15. Giving the peace sign
16. Putting both palms up to indicate “I don’t know”

If your child has few items on this list, consider incorporating more gestures into your everyday routines to communicate with your child. Help them copy you! You can consider taking their hands to support them in making these gestures. 

BUT…what if you child does have many gestures, but little actual words?

Time to consider using the “Rule of +1” to boost a child’s language skills!

It’s so important for caregivers and clinicians to meet children where they are developmentally.

Too often, we end up speaking to children with expressive language delays using sentences that are too long or too complex – accidentally hindering the child’s chances to imitate what we say.

Help children improve their verbal imitation by using the “Rule of +1”:

– if your child isn’t using words, add +1! Speak to them using 1 word utterances. For example: “Ball!”, “Car!”, “Vroom!”
– if your child is speaking using 1 word utterances, add +1! Speak to them using 2 word utterances. For example: “Ball go!”, “Big car!”, “Car vroom!”
– if your child is speaking using 2 word utterances, add +1! Speak to them using 3 word utterances. For example: “Ball go now!”, “Drive big car!”, “Car go vroom!

And so on, and so forth! Easily one of the communication strategies I use the most!

To see if your child is meeting their developmental milestones, book an assessment with a speech-language pathologist.