#Free Resources

Words don’t come out of nowhere. They’re built on sounds first 🗣️ Environmental + animal + exclamatory sounds like (uh-oh, wow, beep beep, moo, oh no) are often easier for toddlers than full words because they: ✨Match what your child is already hearing in real life ✨Are short, rhythmic, and fun to imitate ✨Don’t require perfect articulation/simpler syllable shapes ✨Carry clear meaning in the moment ✨Help toddlers learn turn-taking and vocal play When you model simple sounds during play, you’re lowering the demand while still building the foundation for speech. You’re teaching your child how communication works before expecting words to show up. Sounds → words → phrases This is part of the process! ✨ Send this to a mama who is waiting on their baby to say their first words ✨ Comment “FIVE” if you want support promoting communication at home with your toddler - I’ll send you my top 5 strategies for free 👏🏽 ✨ Follow along for all things pediatric speech and language 🗣️ #speechtherapy #language #speechtherapist #earlylanguageskills #allaboutearlyyears

What if I told you that the toy isn’t nearly as important as HOW you play with it? Hi 👋 I’m Alison, a pediatric speech-language pathologist and a mom. There is no single toy that will make (or break) your child’s language skills. In fact, we don’t actually need toys at all! This video is such a simple interaction, and yet so many prelinguistic skills are taking place: 💫 Taking turns/back & forth interaction 💫 Cause and effect 💫 Vocalizing 💫 Pairing actions with vocalizations 💫 Imitating facial expressions 💫 Shared enjoyment in an activity It’s not about the toy, it’s about HOW you play. 🧸 Don’t get me wrong: I love playing with toys too! But at the end of the day, no single toy is going to be the ticket to boosting your little one’s language. What is your little one’s favorite non-toy item? Let me know in the comments below! 👇🏼 . . . . . #firsttimemom #newmoms #babytips #toddlertips #speechtherapy

☀️Comment “PLAY” for a link to our Infant and Toddler Playbooks! They help your little one meet ALL of their milestones in the first three years of life. 👋 Hi, I’m Jordyn: Speech-Language Pathologist, Feeding Specialist, and Mom to almost 3. My team and I aim to educate parents on how to support their baby & toddler’s speech, feeding, and motor development at home! 🚨New babies spend A LOT of time on their back. It’s estimated that up to 50% of babies develop some head flatness, and one of the reasons for that is excess time spent on their baby and in baby containers. I know it can feel overwhelming not knowing exactly how to play with your new baby, but it’s a lot easier than you think! Keep in mind that we want baby to playing on all sides of their body during wake windows: back, sides, and tummy. There are so many activities you can do to help give baby opportunities to move off their back and support their milestone development! 🎉 That’s why we created The Playbooks! They contain hundreds of milestone-focused play ideas using ONLY what you have at home- anyone anywhere can do these activities! And families in over 100 countries already have 👏🏻 ➡️➡️ Created by a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and Speech-Language Pathologist, these Playbooks have ALL the info you need to meet ALL of your little ones milestones! ☀️Comment “PLAY” to receive a link in your inbox!☀️ #babyplay #babyplaytime #babyplayideas

You know how it looks like our babies are just rolling around on the floor doing… nothing? Yeah. They’re actually doing a LOT 😅 Floor time is where the groundwork for speech is built. Not because we’re “teaching words,” but because their body is learning first. When your baby is on the floor, they’re + Building core strength for breath control + Wiring both sides of the brain through movement + Connecting hands + mouth (hello babbling later) + Practicing eye contact, gestures, and back-and-forth All the skills speech depends on—long before words show up. 💡 Easy play tips you can try today 👇 + Get down at their level and talk about what they’re doing + Place toys just out of reach to encourage movement + Let them mouth toys (it’s brain work!) + Pause and wait—give them time to respond with sounds or gestures + Follow their lead instead of directing the play If you’re ever wondering if you’re “doing enough”… Floor time is enough. Did you know floor time supported speech later? 👀 Comment FLOOR if you want simple play ideas by age 💛 #parents #newmom #baby #infant #firsttimemoms

Imitating sounds is an important skill that comes before spoken words! Encourage your baby to imitate you by making it fun! Get down to their level so they can see how your mouth moves as you make different vocalizations. To make it more engaging and help the sound “stick”, try pairing it with an action. For example, using your arm as an elephant trunk while making the sound. @babyeinstein #earlycommunication #earlylanguage #mom #speechtherapy #baby

👶🏼 Here’s a simple learning activity for your 6-12 month old! ✨ Lay down a towel ✨Fill a baking sheet with warm water ✨ Add floating toys to the water ✨ Place an empty container next to the baking sheet To make it more educational: Demonstrate to baby how to move toys from one container to the next. Having one container full of water and one empty container helps teach object containment, cause and effect learning and the concept on “in/out”, “full/empty”. Use short simple words and phrases to narrate what they’re doing ☀️ Follow @babblinbaby for more baby development tips from a speech pathologist!

One of the most common questions I hear is: “Do they even understand me yet?” And the answer is: yes — in ways you can’t always see. 💛🧠 Every time you talk, respond, or play with your baby, their brain is building the foundation for listening and language. These quiet moments matter more than most parents realize. Swipe through to learn what’s really happening inside their brain. 💾 Save this for later ✨ Follow for calm, science-backed baby support 🎴 Free Do, Say, Play cards in our bio #InfantLearning #RaisingTalkers #ParentEducation #ToddlerSpeech #LanguageDevelopmentTips

Before kids can follow directions, they need to understand spatial concepts. Spatial concepts (up/down, in/out, on/off, open/close) are some of the earliest building blocks of language. 
Babies as young as 12–18 months start hearing and using these words in play and daily routines. 
Teaching these concepts early helps children follow directions, describe actions, and expand vocabulary later on. #earlylanguage #earlycommunication #parent #speechtherapy #mom

At six months, babies “talk” with their whole bodies. Before they can use words, they need a brain and body that can coordinate balance, stability, reaching, rolling, and exploring. These big movements strengthen the neural pathways that later supportworking attention, turn-taking, imitation andt? eventually speech. So when he’s working hard on his gross-motor skills, he’s actually building the foundation for communication. #speechtherapy #children #babies #communication

Imitating gestures/movements is a key step in early language development, building the foundation for communication before words even start. These actions help little ones build turn-taking skills, joint attention, and social skills that pave the way for imitating sounds and words. No act is too small so don’t overthink or stress about it! Whatever you’re doing, your baby is interested, so have fun with it! #mom #earlylanguage #earlycommunication #speechtherapy #slp

✔️Understanding comes before talking Receptive language develops first — kids often know far more than they can say. ✔️Gestures and sounds are real communication Pointing, signing, animal sounds, and babble all count and lead to words. ✔️Words don’t “turn on” — they build gradually Language grows through thousands of small interactions, not suddenly overnight. ✔️Play is how toddlers learn language Play builds joint attention, meaning, and word understanding. ✔️Modeling works better than prompting Hearing language used naturally teaches more than being asked to repeat. ✔️Repetition helps the brain learn words Toddlers need to hear words many times in many contexts. ✔️Fewer words doesn’t always mean a problem Patterns of interaction matter more than just word count. ✔️Communication is more than speech Looking, responding, pointing, taking turns — these are the foundation. ✔️Every toddler’s timeline looks different Development is a range, not a single deadline. Comment “FIVE” for the top 5 strategies I teach parents to help promote communication at home for free ✨🗣️ #speechtherapy #speech #language #speechtherapist #earlylanguageskills

The way your baby explores the world might not look like the picture you had in your head. The book gets chewed. Pages get flipped upside down. It lasts all of ten seconds before they crawl away. And still… something important is happening. When @jessicalibby.au joined our village, she shared that the very first step in early speech development is explore. Not perfect play. Not sitting still. Just following your baby’s lead and elaborating on what already captures their attention. Because babies learn language through connection, not control. Through curiosity, not correction. So if reading time looks a little chaotic in this season, you are not behind. You are meeting your baby exactly where they are. You are building communication in the small, ordinary moments that often feel the least “perfect”. These simple moments are never small inside motherhood 🤎