Learning to speak is like baking a cake. It requires ingredients and a specific process. The ingredients required are called prelinguistic skills, and include things like imitation, intent and babbling. I’ve given you a basic cake recipe. Depending on the uniqueness of the individual child, babbling might look different, play might look different and joint attention might looks different. You might be making a delicious princess cake or a galaxy cake with a mirror glaze, but I digress. In all cases, spending time bolstering prelinguistic skills is important to the deliciousness of the cake.
- Teresa Newmark, MA, CCC-SLP