What to Do When Your Child Isn’t Talking: Expert Strategies to Help Your Baby or Toddler Talk, Overcome Speech Delay, & Build Language Skills for Life

by Nicola Lathey

An essential guide to language development - from babbling, to first words, to full sentences - plus, how to support the speech of autistic children or children with ADHD.

The stress, anxiety, and isolation of the past few years have led to a crisis among young children. Many toddlers who had been chatting away stopped altogether while others never developed language skills at all. Speech and language therapist Nicola Lathey and journalist Tracey Blake are on a mission to get your child back on track--with strategies tailored to specific

- What if your baby isn't babbling in year one?

- What if your toddler isn't saying their first words in year two?

- What if your child isn't talking in sentences like their peers in year three?

What to Do When Your Child Isn't Talking answers parents' burning questions about their child's development and provides expert strategies to put this advice into practice. With each chapter devoted to a language setback and solution, this book provides practical advice and fun games for parents to steer their children back on track and set them up for success at school and in life.

Genres: Parenting

Audible Audio

Published June 6, 2023

Reviews

[Fallon Whitacre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very kind, gentle, helpful, and practical book. I wasn’t looking for it but the title caught my eye when I was at our library and I’m so glad it did. Even if you don’t read the whole thing you will find helpful tips just by skimming a few pages. My only wish is that I’d found it sooner but we will be using these strategies for our toddler and any future children.

[Kendra Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with over 20 years of experience, primarily with children ages birth thru five, I am always looking for tools and resources to better equip parents. Because I have a Master’s degree in speech language pathology (communication disorders), I was well equipped as a new mom to help enrich and develop my children's speech and language skills. Not every parent, nor pediatrician, has the benefit of years of training and experience as I had, but this book is an excellent resource for any parent or doctor.

The authors, one being an experienced SLP herself, and the other an editor and mother, have written a book that can help any parent (or pediatrician) understand not only what typical developmental communication milestones are, but also how to help stimulate and grow their child’s speech and language skills. The information is organized in chapters chronologically in development as well as in informative categories, such as what to do if your child has a tongue tie. I feel that any parent can be even better equipped to help their child develop and grow with the tools and information this book provides them. The authors stress the importance of time, attention, modeling and repetition to help any child learn to communicate. I especially appreciate them describing specific songs, games, finger plays, and toy that can be useful speech and language tools to any parent or caregiver.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

[Johanna Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was eye opening and an informative read. I have a Grandson who just turned four and doesn’t speak. He might say ten words. This book is geared toward a toddler but I imagine once we start speech therapy many of the ideas shared will be used to help him.

I feel like we should have acted sooner but with COVID everything has been backed up and staffing issues. This was a great idea for a book but I think my Grandson is more in the autistic spectrum. There were so few chapters on this but I understand this wasn’t a book for diagnosing autism. I did enjoy the ideas it gave to mirror play.

Kudos to the author for sensing a need for this kind of help. I hope there are many children helped from this book!

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left this review.

[Tina Milledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. It’s a very reassuring book fir parents and offers a plethora of ideas to encourage babbling to talking and communicating and reasons for the ideas.. As a grandparent it gave me play ideas and reassurance that my 20 month old grandson is doing fine with his verbal skills.