If your child is using gestures but not using words yet, don’t be afraid! Gestures, like waving, clapping, pointing, and head nods are great examples of communication and do NOT prevent your child from learning spoken language. Using gestures are just one of the many steppingstones that lead to verbal communication.  When your child is in this situation, here are some things you can do:

Don’t punish the gestures! Ignoring gestures or asking your child to “use their own words” is not effective in improving verbal language and can be counter-productive to learning. Instead, use your words to respond to the gesture. Here’s a few examples:

• If your child is pointing, label what they point to. “Juice! Do you want some juice? Let’s go get a drink.”
• If your child is waving say “hello (mommy)” or “goodbye (grandpa)”. “Let’s wave goodbye to grandpa”.
• If your child is you giving a thumbs up say “Yes! You did a great job”

I made a short video talking about how you can use gestures to increase language skills with your child.

Finally, learning words with just sounds is hard. Make it easier by using the visual support of gestures. Model gestures with as many words as you can! Looking for more ideas? Check out my new book 30 Days To Get Your Toddler Talking for more language learning strategies. It’s a 30 day step by step program written for parents and caregivers to help increase language skills and time on task.  Click here to get it.