Hello everyone, it’s Kasey! I got a request to write this blog after spending the holidays with my sister and her kids. My niece is three and my nephew is two. I simply adore them and the time that I get to spend with them, especially since they live in Michigan and I only get to see them a few times per year. My sister, who is two years younger than me, will often joke that she brings the kids into town a few times a year so they can get a “boost of therapy”. While I don’t really do “therapy” with them, I do love to play with them.
My sister was commenting on the differences between her eldest a girl and her youngest a boy in their ability to generate different conversational topics at different ages. She asked for this blog she often tells me that the way that I am able to talk to kids is amazing, but since I do it professionally for a living, it never seems out of the ordinary or spectacular to me. I wanted to break down a few ideas of topics that I typically bring up with children at different ages in order to give you some helpful starters. Three of my favorite topics for kids are listed below.
Talking about what you are doing. This literally never gets old. You can talk about whatever it is that you are doing, household chores, running errands, or even activities of daily living like getting yourself dressed or brushing your teeth. Kids love to be a part of what adults are doing and by talking about what you’re doing you give them the speech and language (or the words and sounds) that they need to communicate about these topics.
Talking about animals. Kids like to talk about animals and typically have a variety of experiences that relate to animals include going to the zoo, reading a book, singing a song, or even meeting a new pet. Talking about animals and using animal noises to interact with kids is always a good idea because these are some of the simplest sounds that we have in English (moo, baa, woof, etc.). Talking about animals has always been a crowd favorite, no matter if it is a 2 year old or a 10 year old that I am talking to.
Talk about the here and now. Kids typically want to talk about whatever is happening in the moment, so picking something that is happening right away is always advantageous. Being able to notice what kids are interested in, what they’re doing, what they’re looking at, songs they’ve heard, or an activity they’ve just complete is always a great conversation starter.
As I talked to our team about starting to write this blog Ms. Judi wanted me to mention the flip side of talking to kids and how sometimes we spend too much time talking, fill too much silence, and use advanced words or language that may not be beneficial for our kids. Check out my next blog post to learn more about things to avoid when conversing with kids or conversation killers!
-Kasey-