Hi Allie,
My son is 34 months now, and is also FINALLY saying words over and over. Our Speech Therapist told me that it's perfectly normal, even expected, for children to chant a word over and over again. Part of it is mastering the new sound/mouth movement, part of it is that it actually feels good physically to say words, and sometimes it's an attention seeking or self soothing activity. Since it seems that DD is still working on joining up two or three word sentences, try capitalizing on the repeated words. Two ways I've done this with my son, depending on the favorite word of the moment, is to either pair up that word with expected words, or words that have same alliteration. To use your HI HI HI as an example, I will help Nic to make a game of Hi Bear, Hi Mom, Hi Shoe, Hi Dad, Hi Chair, etc, going around or pointing to objects for him to say "Hi ____" to. We'll also do Hi, Hot, Hey, He, Ho, Hall... or Hi, Pie, Dye, Bye, Tie.
If DD is using the repetition as a self soothing activity, see if you can figure out what's triggering the need of the moment. I've found my son will do it on his way to falling asleep, in which case I don't interfere. But if it seems to be winding him up more than winding him down, I try to help him calm down by repeating back the word with an added word to put it in a fuller context but also to change the cycle. Other times, he's chanting a word because he's 'stuck' in the muscle cycle of the word, when he's really trying to express an entire thought. Again, I help him slow down, I ask him to point to things, say the repeated word R-e-a-l-l-y slowly, and in general decipher the whole thought, constantly asking him to confirm that I'm getting it right, but in asking I let him know that he must tell me things like "Yes Momma", "No Momma", "Right Momma", "Wrong Momma". It's upping the ante, and it is a fine line between challenging him and frustrating him. I have noticed that he responds really well to over dramatized or comical reactions on my part. Seems to lesson the frustration on his part. I may look really foolish to strangers in the store when I do this, but I figure "hey, if a little embarrassment on my part helps him to be a better communicator in the long run, it's an easy price to pay!" And most people who comment are very complimentary to both of us and seem to genuinely enjoy our antics.
Hope this helps! |
