How To Truly Help Your Toddler Use 2-Word Phrases - Ep 69 Artwork

Talking Toddlers

Calm, developmentally grounded guidance for moms of babies and toddlers.

As a mom of a baby or toddler, it can feel like everyone has an opinion - and very few answers that actually make things clearer. The noise is loud. The pressure is real. And the uncertainty can be exhausting.

Talking Toddlers is a podcast for moms who want calm, trustworthy, developmentally grounded guidance - without fear, guilt, or unrealistic expectations.

I’m Erin Hyer, a licensed speech-language pathologist with nearly 35 years of experience supporting young children and their families. I’ve spent my career on the floor with toddlers, partnering with parents, consulting with early educators, and training graduate students to understand how children truly grow, learn, and communicate - through relationships, everyday routines, and meaningful language experiences.

This podcast breaks down how the young brain learns, why certain behaviors or challenges show up, and how parents can gently support development before small concerns become bigger ones. I believe parents are in a powerful position — not to do more, but to understand more.

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Gentle explanations of the why behind toddler behavior and development

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My goal is simple: to help moms feel empowered and toddlers feel supported - so learning, communication, and connection can grow naturally at home.

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This is a space for clarity, connection, and courage - where moms come to slow down, trust themselves, and support their child’s development with confidence.

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Talking Toddlers

How To Truly Help Your Toddler Use 2-Word Phrases - Ep 69

December 05, 2023 • Erin Hyer • Season 2 • Episode 69

0:00 | 37:07

First words are an exciting time, as is following directions and putting sentences together! Milestones are vital pieces of information that can't be glossed over.

So yes, it’s discouraging when your toddler doesn’t hit such critical milestones.

Therefore, in this episode I’m revealing true SECRETS to help you KNOW how to measure where your toddler is currently and HOW to help him/her move to the next level.

I reveal what a good speech therapist would do in the first several sessions - AND how you can easily do the exact same things…. At home, successfully and with confidence.

I cover the first 3 measurable steps … you don’t want to miss out on the secrets!

We’ll continue in a series of episodes with the goal to know EXACTLY where you and your toddler stand today … and make remarkable steps into the new year!

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Erin 0:02

Hello, and welcome to Talking Toddlers, where I share more than just tips and tricks on how to reduce tantrums or build your toddler's vocabulary. We're going to cover all of that, but here, our goal is to develop clarity. Because in this modern world, it's truly overwhelming. This podcast is about empowering moms to know the difference between fact and fiction, to never give up, to tap into everyday activities so your child stays on track. He's not falling behind. He's thriving through your guidance. We know that true learning starts at home. So let's get started. practice by putting. Two syllables together the same syllable. Cause that's easier before you say good night. You can say night-night. And it's warming up the engine. Right. And he's getting them the planning of these oral articulators to work right. try to target these words with sounds that he already has. say he has a lot of Mmm words, And so you try to. really target some of those words, and look at his lest, keep it close by, and play around with where is he? What sounds is he? I say he a locked, but he or she's making. And then how can we build from that? And one of the best and, I've done this for, as I said, 35 years, but one of the best track to use our animal sounds and a lot of parents don't really get the nuances the critical piece to playing around with animal sounds. They think it's just fun and oh yeah, no, it really helps with that motor planning. And at this stage, if they have, a shortened syllable and we want to double it up and we say, move, move. Or bah, bah. a right to have the same. Back-to-back. Crack crack. Woof. All of those great animal sounds. And then if you want to put another layer to it and make it really, really therapeutic or learning-based right, then do some kind of movement. You can clap. You can pat on the floor. Because we can feel right. You use gross motor and fine motor. And I know that in a recent episode, I think it was episode 66. I talk a lot about motor planning, gross motor planning and speech coming together through nursery rhymes. Right? So when you're doing these animal sounds, you clap or snap, or, Pound on the table or stomp your feet. Move. Boink boink. All of those funny sounds and movement go together. Right. And then that's part of how the brain is wiring itself, going from those gross motor to those fine motor skills and planning it out on purpose. So you can model these funny, cute little animal. Duplicated sounds and then wait. And if he doesn't do it, then help him do hand over hand, assist him through the process. So he can feel, and you don't have to, you know, force him to say it, but, he can clack or go quack, quack, or, stumps. Stop. He can feel the, the planning, the motor planning and the speech com combining together. So this, this technique, working through two of the same syllables through some gross motor planning, real can help even a child who has motor planning problems. We call it apraxia of speech, but they don't have to, they can just have. low tone or just, hasn't had a lot of workout through, chewing or eating or just babble. And so he is weak in coordinating these and all it, not all it takes, but the vast majority of it to kick it and move it on down. Is to, um, play with these animals sounds And that's one of the reasons why signing is so effective with kids who are struggling. it's helpful and it's cute and it's fun if they're on a neuro-typical path, but if there's any kind of delay or your concern, then signing help support that. It also takes the pressure off of these fine motor movements. And we're doing these gross motor movements that are more fun. So keep that in mind. I just want to step in and kind of change gears because I realize that's a lot of nuance. And it's a lot of really valuable information that I don't want you to overlook. I want you to be able to implement it and start gathering information and work from home with confidence. You know, now know how to create a wordless secretly over two or three days in a variety of contexts. Home is where your toddler, your most beautiful child is most comfortable. Home with you playing. Engaging through his daily routines. And that's where he's going to be his most authentic self. Yes, it's true. Us speech pathologists. We take speech and language samples too, but it's done over several sessions and you are paying the bill 150 bucks a pop. But we have to do that over several sessions because it takes time to build a rapport and gain your toddler's trust to be himself. But you, you got this right? You can do it at home right now with no extra costs. Get the word list, analyze the vocabulary. does he or she have different grammatical categories. Are they just nouns? Where are the verbs, adjectives, prepositions. Do they use social gestures or social words are they're requesting We ran through the list and if he's not, then you know exactly where to start. You know how to spend your time now with him. During his casual routines, his day-to-day life, you know? Oh, let's add more verbs. Let's build his whole vocabulary list because he only has 15 words that he uses over and over and over again. Or you could say, okay, he has 75, a hundred words. Great. He's using some of the different grammatical structures. Great. But he's not really using two syllables. So let's start there. Let's start playing with animal sounds. The truth is it's not hard per se. It's just a really novel concept that most of you have never, ever thought of rightfully so. I'm sure you're great at whatever profession you've been trained at. So now I'm giving you the tools, you know, the exact first step that any qualified. Good decent speech pathologist would do now. I just taught you how to do it. You can do it from home where he's comfortable and authentic, and you can do it across every single day. Right. That's your assignment, no matter where you and your toddler are on this journey, word list, analyze find the starting point. Now some of you might say, well, He has 200 words. He's putting words together. It's just not in a regular fashion. Great. Then you have gathered his word list. You've analyzed it and you confirmed these three steps are done. Great. Let's move on. Guess what? I'm going to give you those next steps as well, but I didn't want to overload everyone. Remember. Take advantage of these particular days because it's during the holidays. And what do we do? We have a lot of Christmas carols. They're repetitive. They're cute. They're easy. We can do gestures to them. Think we wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas. Trust me, toddlers. Preschoolers. Love it. So make gestures with them, do a little dance routine, get the bodies moving and the fine motor speech will be integrated with it. I promise you. Don't forget to subscribe and look out for some bonus episodes because a lot's happening and I don't want you to miss any of it. You've guys have got this. you have your homework assignment for this week and those that have already checked that off. Great. I've got you covered too. Remember? Eat. Talk play. Every single day. God bless. And I'll see you next week. Bye.