The Easiest First Word to Teach Your Toddler

As an early intervention speech therapist, I work with a lot of late talking toddlers. While every child is different, and my approach varies for each child and family I work with, I’ve found a few go-to strategies that almost never fail. If you’re the parent of a toddler and want to help them start talking, keep reading to learn about one of my favorite first words to teach. I'll also share strategies you can use to practice these words throughout your day.

Ready…Set…

You guessed it, “Go!” This is one of the first words I try to teach and it is often where I have the most success. In fact, “go” was one of my son’s first words because I used these strategies with him! There are so many reasons why this is a great first word to work on with your toddler. But the most important features I’ll discuss here include anticipation, responsiveness, and repetition. 

What Makes “Go” Such a Great First Word?

The Magic of Anticipation

Anticipation is key. You can spend all day modeling great language for your child, but some toddlers won’t imitate words spontaneously. They need a little extra incentive. And that’s where anticipation comes in! By using a familiar phrase – like “ready, set, go!” – you have the perfect opportunity to utilize this key strategy. Here are the three steps for encouraging first words through anticipation:

Step #1: Familiarize your child with the phrase

Start by modeling the phrase “ready, set, go!” during many different activities so your toddler becomes familiar with it. Speech therapists refer to a phrase like this as a verbal routine, meaning it’s something you say consistently every time you do a certain activity. Maybe every time your toddler takes a bath you say “ready, set, go” as you turn on the faucet. And when your toddler is on the swing you say “ready, set, go” before giving them a push. There are so many activities where this phrase can be used (I’ll provide examples of my favorites below). The important thing to start with is familiarizing your toddler with this phrase by using it regularly.  

Step #2: Find a motivating – and slightly hard – activity

As you model this phrase throughout the day, you might start to notice certain activities that your child gets more excited about than others. Take note of this – these will be the best activities to help encourage your toddler to talk. For my son, pull-back cars, wind-up toys, and swinging were some of his favorites. Speech therapy in early intervention generally follows a child-led approach, which means we utilize the child’s interests to naturally encourage communication. If you follow your child’s lead by noticing what they are interested in, they will be more motivated to participate and communicate.

Why do I suggest a “slightly hard” activity for this step? Because you want to find something your toddler can’t do on their own, otherwise you lose the upper hand and the ability to create anticipation. In this instance, we want a child to rely on us to perform the action they are waiting for, giving them the motivation to communicate this need to us. This is referred to as a communicative temptation and it is a key factor for building anticipation. For example, at 14 months old my son wasn’t able to operate the pull back cars or wind up toys on his own. And kids always want help getting pushed on the swing! 

Step #3: Begin the phrase and then WAIT

Here’s the fun part... Now that your child is familiar with the phrase and you’ve found some good motivating activities, let’s see if we can get them to talk! Let’s use pull-back cars as an example. Sit a few feet away from your child and dramatically pull back the car while saying “Ready…set……..” and then PAUSE and WAIT. This part is so hard for lots of parents, but don’t say anything! Just look at your toddler with an excited and expectant expression. You will probably feel awkward and your toddler might even start to smile or laugh at you. Try to wait at least 10 seconds. If your child hasn’t responded by then, go ahead and say “GO!” while letting the car zoom toward them. However, if your child does make any sort of sound, respond quickly by saying “GO!” and sending the car towards them. The hope is that the anticipation of wanting the car to move, combined with their familiarity with what comes next in the verbal routine, will help motivate them to finish the phrase for you.

The Power of Responsiveness

You may have noticed above that I said you should let the car go if your child makes any sort of sound. This is where responsiveness comes into play. When a toddler is just starting to talk, we don’t need to worry about what the word sounds like. Working on the clarity of their words is something that can come later if needed. The first step is to help teach them that their sounds have meaning and that their voice is powerful!

To do this we want to be responsive to any attempt they make to communicate. Regardless of what type of vocalization they make, we want to acknowledge their attempt at communicating by following through with the action they are requesting (i.e. making the car go). And while doing this, you model the correct pronunciation of the word “Go!” My son started off saying “go” by making a strange grunting sound in his throat. It then progressed to “doh” and eventually a clear “go.” This progression happened on its own through practice and modeling. If you hold out for a perfect “go” from the start, your child may lose interest or feel like their communication isn’t “good enough,” which could make them less likely to try again in the future. So in these early stages, try to respond to any attempt your child makes.

The Importance of Repetition

Lastly, when working on first words you need to provide lots of opportunities for your child to hear the word or phrase and practice it throughout the day. The great thing about the phrase “ready, set, go” is that it can be applied to almost any activity you do with your toddler – especially ones that your toddler is anticipating and excited about. Just remember that you want to be in control of the action so that your toddler has motivation to communicate. Some of my – and my toddler’s – favorites include: 

Play

• Making a car "go"

• Rolling a ball

• Swinging

• Tossing your child up in the air

• Blowing bubbles

Daily Routines

• Turning on the faucet

• Dumping water in the bath

• Opening a door

• Picking your child up

• Pushing your child in a shopping cart or stroller

Parents Have the Power!

Can you believe that just by practicing the simple phrase “ready, set, go” you’re actually implementing all of these communication strategies at once!? In early intervention, my goal as a speech therapist is to empower caregivers and teach that parents have the power to support their toddlers' communication during daily interactions. Try the above strategies during some of your day-to-day activities and don’t sweat it if your toddler doesn’t fill in the “go” right away. The important thing is that you are creating the opportunity for them to communicate when they are ready. So keep at it and know that you are taking important steps to support your toddler’s communication skills.

If you’re looking for an extra challenge, try these strategies with another one of my favorite phrases: “peek-a…boo!” Let me know in the comments below if it gets your toddler talking!

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Download this handout as a quick and easy reminder of how to use the phrase “ready, set, go” to help your toddler communicate. If you're looking for more support, contact me today for more information:

Let's Go!