When we look at how many words your child should be saying, there are two different numbers to be aware of: the milestone, and the average. Learn how many words children are expected to say at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months, according to developmental milestones, and averages, and what to do if your child has not met this language milestone.

When you’re asked the question, “How many words is your child saying?” you might first ask yourself, “What counts as a word?” Read to learn what counts as an early word.

Babbling is a foundational skill that precedes first words. Learn what to do to help increase your baby's babbling to encourage their speech and language development.

Words can have many functions, including labeling, requesting, protesting, greeting, commenting, and responding. When we understand how our child is using different words, it can help us better support their language development journey.

Check out my favorite winter books for babies and toddlers, and how to use them to work on language skills.

Here are my recommendations, as a speech-language pathologist, of my favorite toys that are great gifts for the holidays that can help your child’s speech and language development, and tips on how to use the toys to help develop different areas of your child’s language skills.

Check out my favorite fall books for babies and toddlers, and how to use them to work on language skills.

Babies start cooing as early as 2 months with vowel sounds, and start to produce different types of babbling by 4-10 months of age with early developing consonant sounds including p, b, m, t, d, n, h, w, and y. Learn how to encourage these early developing speech sounds with your baby.

Verbal routines are a simple and effective early language strategy to help increase your baby or toddler’s understanding of and use of words in meaningful contexts.

Once your baby is starting to imitate words and use new words independently, it can be hard to figure out how to get your toddler to use their new vocabulary. Giving verbal choices is an easy trick to help your toddler practice their new words and learn to use words to make requests.

Cloze statements can be used to encourage your little one to participate in singing songs, reading books, and making comments about routine tasks, by leaving off the last word of a familiar phrase or sentence.