Helping My Son Develop His Speech and Language

My son was non-verbal until the age of three and need-based verbal until the age of five. He is eighteen years old now, and speaks fluently. Here are ten things that we did to promote his speech based on doctor’s recommendations:

1. Exposing him to one language. Our mother tongue is Marathi but we chose English so that he could communicate outside the home as well. We spoke in English, read books in English, listened to songs in English, and watched English cartoons. We made it a point not to expose him to any other language while he was learning.

Helping My Son Communicate His Needs

When I set about teaching my son to communicate his needs, I realized that there were two distinct processes involved in communicating needs:

1. Recognizing the body's needs

2. Communicating these needs

Recognizing Needs

We experience the world through our senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are the five basic senses. There are three additional senses that are recognised now, bringing the total number of senses to eight: