Playing With Words 365

Educating, inspiring, and empowering parents & professionals in supporting young children's overall development

  • Home
  • About
    • About Katie
      • Credentials, Training and Philosophy
      • How I Got Here
    • About This Blog
  • Blog
  • Child Development
    • Speech & Language Development from Birth to Five
    • Speech and Language 101
    • Toy Recommendations for Speech & Language Development
    • Sign Language 101
  • Speech Therapy
    • How to Help Your Child Talk
    • What You Can Expect From Speech Therapy {A Guide for Parents}
    • How to find an SLP
    • Speech Therapy Tips & Activities
    • Materials & Product Recommendations
    • SLP Forms, Charts, and Data Sheets
    • How To Elicit {Teach} Speech Sounds Series
    • Freebies!
  • Resources
    • for Parents & Caregivers
    • for SLPs
  • About My Life (Blog)

Strategies to Help Your Child Talk: Using Expansions and Extensions

November 9, 2011 by Katie Filed Under: How to Help Your Child Talk 5 Comments

As I explained in my last post, children learn language by hearing it over and over. I explained in that post all about using the strategies of Self Talk,  Parallel Talk and Descriptions to help teach your infant, toddler, or young child language. Those strategies can be used with children who have no spoken words or have many spoken words. Here I am going to explain a few other strategies you can use to help teach and expand your child’s receptive and expressive language skills in children who have at least some spoken words.

Use expansions as your child tells you about her toys

Expansions: Expansions are when you take the words your child says about what they see and do and repeat them while adding in missing words/grammar. Another way to look at it, is repeating back the “child-like” sentences back to your child using more “adult” language. By doing this, you are repeating and expanding your child’s language without directly “correcting” him/her. For example, if your child see’s a red block and says “red” you could say “Yes, it’s a red block.” If your child says “Car go!” you would say something like “Yes! The car is going.”  It can be helpful to emphasize the “new” language you are providing by saying those words with a higher inflection/tone in your voice and sometimes can you can even repeat those new words a second time.

The simple act of repeating your child’s utterances not only confirms to your child that you indeed heard him/her, but also this back-and-forth of repeating let’s your child know that what he/she said was “worth repeating” and therefore can encourage your child to say it yet again (either immediately or later). This provides your child with continuing modeling and practice of language concepts.

Use extensions to provide more information

Extensions/Expansions Plus: These are similar to expansions, but one more step up. In extensions, or otherwise known as expansions plus, you not only are repeating and expanding your child’s language, but you will also be adding or extensions new information. For example, if your child says “Car go!” you could say “Yes the car is going. The car is going fast.” If your child says “Red block.” you could.  say “Yes, you have a red block. The red block is shaped like a triangle!” Another example, if your child were to say “yellow doggy” you could say “Yes you see a yellow doggie! The yellow doggie is big and fluffy.”

Repetition: This is for children who are speaking at least in single words, to help provide correct models for articulation. You simply repeat back the word he/she said incorrectly, the correct way. For example if your child says “wabbit” for “rabbit” you would repeat back that word to him, while emphasizing the /r/ sound in the word.

Just like self talk and parallel talk, the use of these strategies may come more naturally for some people than for others. And that’s ok!

How often should I use these strategies? Again, like I explained in my last post, you don’t want to use these strategies with EVERY word your child utters. You need to find a nice balance. I personally find myself using these strategies quite often with my own daughter in a very natural way. If you find that using these strategies is breaking the natural give and take of the conversation, you are probably using them too much.

What other strategies can I use to help my child’s language development? Check out these posts in my Strategies Series:

Parallel and Self Talk

Using Expansions and Extensions

Commenting and Asking Questions

Modeling and Asking Questions

Setting up The Environment for Communication

Cheers!


Please remember that this information is for educational purposes only. If you feel your child has delays in his/her communication skills, please speak to your pediatrician or locate a speech pathologist in your area for an assessment. Be sure to read the full TERMS OF USE on this site for more info. For tips on how to find an SLP in your area. read HERE.

About Katie

Katie is a licensed, credentialed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom to four (8, 6, 3 and 6 months). Her passion for educating, inspiring and empowering parents of children with all abilities led her to start her blog playing with words 365 where she shares information about speech & language development & intervention strategies, parenting, photography and a little about her family life too. Katie has been working in the field of speech pathology for 12 years and is certified in The Hanen Centre’s It Takes Two to Talk ® and Target Word ® programs and holds a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In addition to blogging and being a mommy, Katie works part time in her small private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Comments

  1. Kristy says

    November 15, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    I remember my aunt telling me how she used extension and expansion with her daughters when I got pregnant with my first. She didn’t use those terms, but now I know what to call her advice. 🙂 I find myself repeating what my toddler says and sometimes naturally extending it, but I want to make sure I’m not just parroting him. Eventually, that started to make my oldest irritated. Glad to find your blog from the Mom Loop Blog Frog community.

    Reply
    • Katie says

      November 15, 2011 at 12:19 pm

      Thanks for stopping by Kristy! It’s also ok just to repeat back what your toddlers say sometimes, it lets them know what they said is important, or “worth repeating.” But yes, you need to make sure not to do it too much! HA! 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Using Craft Activities to Expand & Stimulate Language Skills | Mommy Blogs @ JustMommies says:
    December 9, 2011 at 11:45 pm

    […] the strategy of self talk as you and your child (or student) are doing the craft. This is when you (the adult) talks about […]

    Reply
  2. Building Language in the Kitchen says:
    November 9, 2013 at 11:07 pm

    […] doing with simple phrases and sentences, emphasizing key words), repeat what your child says using extensions and expansions, and give your children hands-on experience with new vocabulary and concepts.  If your child is a […]

    Reply
  3. 20 Tips for Creating a Language Rich Environment for Your Toddler - I Can Teach My Child! says:
    April 3, 2014 at 4:31 am

    […]  Expand on what he/she says. If your toddler says “car!” expand his words and tell him “Yes! A blue […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Looking for something?

Popular Posts

  • Top 10 Summer Top 10 Summer Activities to Encourage Your Toddler’s Speech Development {A Summer Challenge}
  • Feed Clover Collage Freebie Friday: FEED The Old Lady Who Swallowed the Clover
  • How to Elicit the k&g sounds How to Elicit (Teach) the K & G Sounds {Part One: Elicitation Techniques}
  • My Tricks to Teaching the R Sound My Tricks to Teaching the /r/ Sound
  • The Night Before St The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day: Make a Leprechaun Trap!
  • 15+ Great Games for Speech, Language & Social Skills Development {ages 3-6}
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Child Development
  • Speech Therapy
  • Resources
  • About My Life (Blog)

Copyright © 2023 · Swank WordPress Theme By, PDCD