Try These 6+ Speech Therapy Exercises for Toddlers

Are you searching for speech therapy exercises for toddlers? Many fun activities can be used during daily routines to enhance a child’s speech development and language development. Early intervention can provide a strong foundation for increasing communication skills in toddlers. Speech therapists working on language skills, and parents with young children searching for the best way to support communication development, will find this blog post beneficial. Parents of late talkers may also find this information useful.

This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended.

Why Target Speech Therapy Exercises for Toddlers?

Incorporating effective speech therapy exercises for toddlers can benefit overall communication development.

The purpose is to help toddlers learn vocabulary that will allow them to create sentences as they get older.

What Skills Should Speech Therapy Exercises for Toddlers Focus On?

Speech therapy exercises for toddlers should focus on skills such as vocabulary development, such as learning nouns, prepositions, and adjectives.

​Toddlers need to learn a variety of verbs as well.

This is because this will help them form word combinations and later on, sentences.

Parents can help their toddlers learn vocabulary and sentence structures through careful modeling and language modeling strategies, such as “expansion”.

Early Intervention and Speech Therapy

Why is early intervention important?

Early intervention can help young children develop important skills across a variety of developmental areas, including:

• cognitive development
• communication development
• physical development, including vision and hearing
• social or emotional development
• adaptive development

Starting speech therapy services early can have a huge (positive) impact on long-term outcomes. 

In fact, early intervention speech therapy doesn’t just support communication skill development. It plays a crucial role in supporting social interactions and overall academic success. 

This is a time when language is developing rapidly. 

That is why it is important to seek professional help from a certified speech-language pathologist when a speech or language delay is suspected.

References: 

www.asha.org/practice-portal/professional-issues/early-intervention/#collapse_1. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

www.asha.org/njc/evidence-based-practice-for-birth-3/?srsltid=AfmBOoqN_BeSrfajBFKCRpiPmqJ69rNySTLWwkO18PYVtaPHldT2g1IB. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

“Benefits of Early Intervention in Speech Pathology.” Silver Linings Neurodevelopment, silverliningsclinic.com/blog/benefits-of-early-intervention-in-speech-pathology. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

Speech Therapy Areas Targeted in Early Intervention

What are the areas targeted in early intervention speech therapy?

What Is Receptive Language?

First, a speech-language pathologist might address receptive language skills. Receptive language involves understanding spoken or written language. 

When working on language comprehension, an SLP might target following simple instructions (“Get the block!”). 

This could also include a child’s ability to identify named vocabulary words. 

See more receptive language goal ideas for speech therapy.

Expressive Language Skills

Another area that may be targeted in speech therapy sessions is expressive language. This can involve using new words, using words in simple phrases, and learning basic sentence structures.

 It is important to note that expressive communication may involve the use of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication). 

AAC supports language development. And, don’t worry, parents- AAC does not inhibit spoken language development. 

Read more about AAC and speech apps for communication. 

Reference: 

www.asha.org/njc/aac/#:~:text=Augmentative%20and%20alternative%20communication%20(AAC)%20describes%20multiple%20ways%20to%20communicate,with%20severe%20expressive%20communication%20disorders. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

Speech Sound Production

Speech therapists may work on age-appropriate speech sounds with young children. 

However, it is important to note that many speech sounds do not develop until a child is a little older, such as 4, 5, or 6 years.

Here is information from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association about communication milestones. 

Social Skills

Social skills for toddlers might include responding to greetings and using appropriate gestures. 

Important Speech Therapy Exercises for Toddlers

The best speech therapy activities help children learn new words and expose them to early sentence structures. 

Here are some effective speech therapy exercises for toddlers:

• choose target words carefully
• expand on utterances
• model simple sentence structures and grammatical endings
• incorporate activities with movement
• use hand gestures and signing
• teach nursery rhymes
• Self Talk and Parallel Talk

Choosing Target Words

Speech-language pathologists know that teaching parents how to model language is an important component of early intervention. This is a team effort. 

Parents and family members can use daily routines and everyday items to encourage language development. You can effectively model language in the comfort of your home. 

As you’ve probably guessed, it’s important to model different words.

You may be tempted to teach words like  “more”, “please”, and letters and numbers.

But don’t just focus there.

Research tells us how important it is to teach words such as:

• objects– these are nouns, such as clothing, food, animals, etc.
• location words: these are prepositions, such as “in” and “out”, or “up” and “down:”
• adjectives: these are describing words, such as “big” and “cold”
• verbs: these are action words, such as “go” and “eat” 

Reference: 

Bloem, Marie. “It’s All about the Sentences.” The Informed SLP, 15 Aug. 2024, www.theinformedslp.com/review/sentence-focused-framework. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

Expanding

One early language modeling technique is to repeat a word your child says and expand the utterance by adding a word or two.

So, if your child says “dog”, you might repeat and say, “Big dog!”

This can help encourage some early word combinations. 

Reference: 

Handy Handout #227:   Language Expansion vs. Language Extension-What’s the Difference?, www.handyhandouts.com/viewHandout.aspx?hh_number=227&nfp_title=Language%2BExpansion%2Bvs.%2BLanguage%2BExtension%E2%80%94What%E2%80%99s%2Bthe%2BDifference%3F. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

Modeling Simple Sentence Structure

And while we’re modeling those types of words, we should remember the importance of modeling sentence structure.

We know that many older children with language difficulties struggle with sentence structure development and grammar. 

So, it makes sense that we want to teach words that will help young children form sentences later.

Initially, children typically start with subject+verb (and sometimes object) sentences (“I drink juice”).

Eventually, more grammatical markers are added to create a more adult-like sentence (“I’m drinking juice”).

So, while it can be tempting to model baby talk, it’s important to remember that tense and agreement markers typically emerge by 36 months. 

When you talk to your toddler, don’t be afraid to model those articles (a, an, the) and grammatical endings (like -ing and past tense -ed). 

Reference: 

Bloem, Marie. “It’s All about the Sentences.” The Informed SLP, 15 Aug. 2024, www.theinformedslp.com/review/sentence-focused-framework. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

Movement-Based Activities

Movement and language development go hand-in-hand!

We know the movement can help with learning new vocabulary words– pretty cool, huh?

And toddlers aren’t known for sitting still.

So, try some movement-based activities as an effective way to model speech and language.

Here are a few ideas for movement activities:

• pretend to move around like different animals (and you can target animal sounds as well)
• do a simple obstacle course to work on location words, like “on”, “off”, “up”, and “down”
• roll a ball back and forth to work on turn-taking and vocabulary (such as “go” and “fast”)
• play music and dance- model vocabulary to describe the music as “loud” and “quiet”, or “fast” and “slow”
• sing simple songs paired with movements, like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Hand Gestures and Signing

Don’t forget about teaching gestures!

Imitating gestures is linked to language development.

Children who use gestures tend to say their first words sooner.

They’re pretty important. 

Here are some examples of gestures that toddlers might learn:

• waving hi and bye
• pointing 
• clapping hands
• shaking head no or yes

Parents may also wish to teach their children baby signs. This can help encourage language development. 

Try this baby signs book.

Reference:

Goldin-Meadow, Susan. “How Gesture Promotes Learning throughout Childhood.” Child Development Perspectives, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Aug. 2009, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2835356/#:~:text=These%20gestures%20do%20not%20merely,the%20way%20for%20that%20change. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

Try a Nursery Rhyme

​Don’t forget nursery rhymes!

A nursery rhyme is a great way to build vocabulary, expose young children to early sentence structures, and build phonological awareness skills (such as rhyming).

Try this nursery rhyme book collection.

Self Talk and Parallel Talk

One simple, but often overlooked strategy, is simply talking aloud while you’re doing something.

It’s when an adult narrates his or her actions.

“I’m turning the water on. I’m getting soap.”

This exposes a young child to even more vocabulary and early sentence structures.

Talk it a step further and also discuss what the child is doing.

“You are eating. Yum!”

Helpful Resources

Are you searching for books or toys to use with toddlers?

Check out some of these suggestions.

Engaging Books for Toddlers

• Baby Sign Language Made Easy book by Lane Rebelo
• Nursery Rhyme Book Collection Book 
• Leslie Patricelli Board Book Set
• A Noisy Touch and Feel Book with Farm Animal Sounds
• Noisy Dinosaurs Book

Best Toys and Interactive Games for Toddlers

• Farm Animal Playset (12-18 months)
• VTech Drop ‘N Go Dump Truck
• Stacking Ring
• Interactive Pop Up Toy
• VTech Learn and Spin Aquarium

More Speech Therapy Ideas for Toddlers

​This article provides even more ideas and recommended activities to help support communication development in toddlers.

It provides more recommended books for toddlers, as well as some additional speech therapy exercises for toddlers. 

​Toddlers and Screen Time

Research indicates a negative impact of too much screen time on language development.

​Reference: 

Author links open overlay panelPriyank Bhutani a, et al. “Is the Screen Time Duration Affecting Children’s Language Development? – A Scoping Review.” Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health, Elsevier, 25 Nov. 2023, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213398423002440#:~:text=After%20reviewing%20various%20studies%2C%20it,adults%20also%20play%20a%20role. Accessed 14 Dec. 2024.

Communication Milestones

Communication milestones are markers that allow us to see a child’s progress in speech and language development.

This information tells us when first words are expected, how many vocabulary words we might expect by a certain age when we can expect two-word combinations, and more.

Are you curious to see speech and language development milestones?

Reference this list, provided by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

This may be useful for parents curious about signs of speech delay.