Supporting Your Child’s Speech & Language Development

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Welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Rachael, and today I'm so excited to talk with Katie and Carly of Wee Talkers. Katie and Carly are pediatric speech language pathologists with over 25 years of experience working in public and private practice, hospitals and schools. And Wee Talkers teaches parents of babies and toddlers how to support their child's language and communication development. Wee Talkers offers connection -driven language resources via online education courses and memberships. And not only do they provide all of this, but they're also moms and have a combined six children. So please welcome Carly and Katie to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining. I'm really excited to talk with you guys. I've been following you on Instagram forever.
We're thrilled to be here. Thanks for having us, Rachael. When we found out this was the name of your podcast, we're like, Oh my gosh, we have to be on because this no one told us notion comes up so much with what we do. Um, so we're excited to be here.
Yeah. I think with speech language, especially in, it seems like in the last few years, people are getting lots of mixed messages, right? So they're hearing one thing from like, you know, the CDC or the AAP guidelines, or they're hearing something different from their pediatrician. They're hearing something different from people on Instagram. And then there's all this unsolicited advice that comes in tpo about how much a child should be talking or what you should be doing to encourage communication development. So I'm really excited to have you guys here today to answer some of our most burning questions about this. And I would love to just hear first kind of like how you, I'm always just so interested to hear about people's like Instagram or business journey. So I would love to hear how you guys met and how you decided to bring your knowledge together to form Wee Talkers and kind of how all of that got started.
So Carly and I were doing our own like speech Instagram page. And was it like 2009? You started in 2017. You're your Instagram right? Oh, wow, you're an OG.
Yes, I am. She is. And I was like 2019. And so we, um, we found each other and started like liking and commenting and kind of engaging and realized that we have really similar values and like just are aligned. And so I was seeing a kid for speech therapy and I got like a little voice memo from Carly and my DMs, slid into my DMs, our romance story and kind of pitched a product together and then we started working together on this community and loved it so much, we couldn't really picture not doing it together all the time. And so we joined forces in 2020, right? Pandemic time.
Yeah, in 2020, it's been so fun. It's really, that's something that I missed a lot about working in the public setting, was working with other speech therapists. So to be together, it's just really fun, and really creative.. And we do live in two different countries, which is interesting, or a lot of times in a different time zone. But since then, you know, we've got to hang out in person a bunch of times, film videos for our songs and stories, membership and stuff. And so it's super fun.
Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think one of the things that most parents want to just make sure of, no matter what we're talking about, whether it's sleep or feeding, or speech or gross motor development, is they just want to make sure that their kid is okay and that they're on track. So what would you guys say are some of the things that they should be looking for early on? So let's start with babies before we get into toddlers. What are some signs of proper communication development even before language emerges, right? So what are some things that we should be looking for in our little ones to make sure that they are kind of on track and doing the things that they're supposed to do as far as communicating with us and understanding?
Okay, we love that you asked this, Rachael, because a lot of times people are thinking, okay, speech therapist, that only starts when your child starts talking. But really, there's all these little mini milestones that we're looking for along the way. And I think things like motor development, it's more noticeable because there's the rolling and then the crawling, but speech and language, it's a lot of it is happening in the brain under the surface and people can't, people don't even know necessarily what they're looking for. But some of the visible signs that we would look for early on are like that social smile. So usually around six weeks, your baby starts smiling back at you, you're hearing those cooing sounds and then around six months to ten months, we look for constant... consonant sounds.
And that's a big range there. We hear a lot of families are worried, you know, six, eight, nine months when their baby's not babbling yet. And that's when they're kind of like, bub, bub, bub, mamama. But for a lot of babies, we don't hear it till up to like 10 months. So there's a wide range, just like you said, with everything in development. So I think it's important to understand kind of those ranges. We wouldn't be concerned that a baby's not babbling until more like that 10 month, 12 month time is when we would suggest like making sure you did your newborn hearing screening, that kind of thing.
And then some of those like not as noticeable things that we would that are happening is their understanding of language. That's something that gets really strong before those first words. So I'm sure like you're seeing that with your youngest right now where maybe she's not saying that much, but you know. she's understanding a ton, right? When you say, "Where's daddy? "She's looking." When you're saying, "Do you want your milk?" Whatever it is, she is very aware of what's going on in understanding.
So I think that that's another thing that families can look for. And then as far as words coming, it's usually around that one year mark is when we see at least one word. There's so much more that counts for a word than parents realize. We just did an Instagram post about this recently, so it doesn't need to be pronounced perfectly. If they say ma for mama or mom, da for daddy, like that counts. It doesn't have to be this perfectly pronounced thing. That will come with time.
Gestures is another thing we look for in baby. So I'm sure you're noticed like your little one, like reaching up to be picked up, you know, pushing things away, shaking. their head, no. This is all communication and should be absolutely celebrated and honored. And then you can just repeat back to them, layer those words on top. So they're making that connection between this nonverbal communication and like the word.
Yeah, I love that. And you're right. Because my son actually my six year old just said the other day, he's like, Mommy, I think Leni is really understanding a lot of what we say now. And we have noticed this this huge, like, explosion with her where she is definitely saying, like, a couple more words than she was even just a few weeks ago. She doesn't have a ton yet, but she is understanding almost everything it seems like. So it's really exciting. It's fun for the siblings to watch too.
Yeah, that's so neat that he noticed that. How observant.
Yeah, it was really cute. And like you said, I love that you included the gestures as well, because she was, you know, waving much before she could say hi. And we actually, I would love to hear your thoughts on this 'cause I know this is another kind of hot topic is….. we've taught her a few signs. We don't do like tons of sign language or anything, but we've taught her a few signs from, you know, around six months or so, I think we started. Usually we do it with our kids when they're starting solids 'cause it's nice for them to be able to sign more and stuff. What are your guys's thoughts on sign language or teaching babies signs.
So we love it. We're big fans for babies and for toddlers who are late talkers. I mean, there's really a lot of benefits from it and it certainly does not deter kids from using verbal spoken speech if they are able to. But we find that babies, especially children, are able to imitate physically before they're able to imitate verbally. So when you can help teach them like that cause and effect that sign language teaches, you know, if I do this with my hands, if I put my hands together to sign more, and my mom gives me a puff that I wanted more of, then that has so much power. That language has so much power, and you're teaching them. the power and the back and forth of communication, which just encourages them to try more and imitate more. And so we see so many benefits with signing. It also really helps with their understanding of language. If you're giving them like the verbal input and a sign, you know, like you want to get your shoes on, let's get your shoes. And I'm using the sign for shoes. And I'm saying the sign for shoes. It's just kind of tapping into all those different modalities of language learning and really is helpful for both their understanding and their use of language. So we're big fans.
Yeah. And I think that can sound overwhelming like, okay, now I need to teach my baby sign language. We're saying like, even just pick like a handful, like, like you, Rachael, you're saying mealtime, that's perfect because they're contained, they're in a chair, they're face to face…. like teaching them more and all done and like, you know, some people like to do please, it's a pretty easy one and it's kind of cute, not that your baby needs to say please. I'm just saying like, as a way to request something, it can be kind of functional.
Yeah.
But I'm just saying like--
And it's totally adorable, we've had her that one. - It is so adorable. - It's so adorable. - Please is very cute. And we have, like if you're like, what are these signs? Like we have reels, we should like pin them up when this goes live or something. So we have like meal time, five meal time signs or five easy signs because it doesn't need to be this whole big thing. And then like Katie said, if a toddler's not talking, not meeting those milestones, then we're like, we really encourage it for them because we want them to have that functional communication to be able to interact with their family.
And I think like also looking at what they're interested in, like when they're... you know If they're really into like the light that was like one of my oldest sons….. Like one of his first word was a sign for light because he was kind of obsessed with turning the lights on and off. Well, that was a great one to teach because he's not gonna say light. That's kind of a tricky word when he is a big
No, that makes sense. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's cute Yeah, the only time that the science have backfired on me was I would teach the sign for milk and So And so at night she could sleep with me and I just see out of the corner of my eye her going like this like all night long.
I really wish I didn't teach that one. Yes, literally. It's like a horror show. It is. Oh my gosh. That is hilarious. I'm glad she can advocate for herself and girlfriend can speak up for her needs. Love it. Love it.
Can you share some simple and doable tips or ideas? Because I love what you say. said about you said something about how it's so like rewarding when when parents are like delighted and when we are so encouraging when our kids starts to use language and I'm doing this fellowship right now which is all about like attachment and we were listening to a lecture last week about how language really does form when we are showing that delight and we're you know sharing encouragement. I just love that so…. in addition to that, like being excited and being interested and showing your delight in your child when they do make those little sounds, what are some things that we could be doing to encourage language that doesn't take a whole ton of time?
I think on that note you were saying about like noticing what they're interested in and things like that, it's just like that responding back. So even if you're busy, Rachael, and you're in the kitchen and Leni’s like over there, if she makes a sound. sound and you say back to her and you just look over and she's at the little play kitchen, you're like, yeah, you're washing your hands, wash, wash, wash, so you're modeling things that they are showing interest in. She's leading the way, you let your child lead the way, and then you layer the language on top of that. Make it simple, it doesn't have to be simple all the time, but you wanna give them kinda like bite -sized pieces, especially of that. 12, 15, 18 month range that they can imitate more easily. And then you want to give them that rich, robust language model as well. You know what I'm saying? Like it's not one or the other. You can talk to them normally and say full sentences, but then also layering in some of that, like I said, like repeating the words, keeping them simple, making them pop.
Yeah. What were you going to say, Katie?
I was just going to say that, like I said, I was just going to say that, like I said, I think a lot of interpreting what they might be trying to say too can be really helpful. So if you're getting them dressed and they're having a fit that you're wanting them to wear pants when it's 40 degrees outside, then you can say like, "Oh, you don't want me to put your pants on. "I hear you. "We're gonna wear pants today. "Let's put our pants on and sing a song about pants." Or like, you know, try to make it playful and fun as much as you can when you're in that right headspace.
Yeah. But I think just kind of interpreting, right? Interpreting what they might be saying if they had the words to say it. That's kind of one of our biggest tips because you're creating associations with those words. So they might not know what the word, like, you know, pants are. They might not understand. how to say pants, but the more that you talk about putting their pants on, let's get, what do you want, the pink pants or the blue pants? Like, the more they hear that word and they experience pants, they're going to start to learn, oh, these are pants. And then when they can talk, they will say the word pants. It's just little steps along the way. Yeah, they'll say no pants. Yeah, spoiler, they will say no pants.
Well, so it sounds like you're saying just like real world, functional. Real world.. - Yes. - Like what is actually happening, 'cause I think a lot of parents think they need to like sit down and look at a book with their baby and say, this is a horse, say horse. What does a horse say? And they have to do all of this like direct instruction and you don't have to do that at all, is what it sounds like you're saying.
Yeah, we love like real world in the moment during your daily routines. We also love reading, but like that example you gave is another huge tip we have is like, decrease the amount of questions you ask because nobody wants to feel like it's a test. We always say learning to talk should not feel like a test and we see a lot of families come to us and they're quizzing and it's totally natural. We get it. Like you want to know what they know, so you ask them and it's just kind of overwhelming and you're going to get a lot further if you're modeling. So, if you're looking through that... book, actually, we're gonna post about this today, huh, Katie? Not asking so many questions, but turning that into a model.
So instead of what color is it? Oh, wow, it's a big blue horse. So they're hearing that model rather than the question all the time.
Amazing. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to ask about what parents should do if they're concerned with their little one -speech development. We'll be right back.
Okay. We are back with Carly and Katie from Wee Talkers, and we're talking all about speech and language development. And the next thing I'd love to hear your opinion on is early intervention. And I know that both of you have lots of experience with this, but for the average parent that is just like, "Where do I even begin if I'm concerned, if my little one isn't really babbling or something?" yet, what would their first line of defense be? Who should they see first? What kind of referral process is it? What can you tell us about this process with early intervention speech?
Yeah, so it varies a bit depending on your location. And it also varies depending on the level of support that you get from your pediatrician or whoever your providers are in your community. So take this with a grain of salt, know that you might have a different experience, but the pediatrician is typically the first place that parents bring up these concerns because you fill out those checklists that ask what they're doing or what they're not quite doing yet. And if you have a really proactive pediatrician, they're going to say, and they're concerned about their speech development, they might say, okay, let's take a look at early intervention. Here's the website that you go to. This is how you fill out the form. If you have a pediatrician that's a little bit more conservative, they might say, let's just wait and see 'til their two month well check. And that's for parents. - Or two year. - Yeah, sorry, two year well check. - Two year. - Yeah. - Their two year well check.
And that's where parents get a little bit of conflicting information because they hear all this important stuff about like you don't want to wait and see, you want to get early intervention when you can and then they have pediatricians saying oh let's just wait till they're two and so what parents don't know is that a lot of times you can refer yourself. You don't have to have a pediatrician refer to a lot of early intervention programs. So that is something that you can do through your state. You just google your state name, early intervention, and a government website will pop up. You enter in your information, you say if you're a parent or a professional referring, and that gets you on your way usually.
Okay. And so that would be for early intervention. And I mean, if a parent had the means and was able to, they could also go into private, right? But that's probably really expensive and prohibitive in that way. But that would be another option, correct? Yeah. Your insurance may cover a portion of it, or you can pay fully yourself. There's also university clinics. We have like a full blog post on alternatives if you're like…. cannot access therapy for some reason. And then that's like a big portion of what we do is like through our online course talk toddlers, there is teach people what we do in the therapy sessions because I think people are surprised with speech therapy for toddlers. We don't focus on the child as much. It's more focused on parent coaching. So we're teaching those strategies. We're teaching them what to look for because the parent is the one with the child so much more than a speech therapist could be. So that's why like our online course can be really helpful to if people so they can start right away because that's the other thing that's like really motivated us to start WeeTalkers is like people are waiting on these long wait lists and so like the price point of the course is like really accessible like less than one therapy session.
Okay, that's amazing. So I'll make sure I link all of that in the show notes, your blog post and your courses and stuff too because yeah, I think a lot of times, unfortunately, it is just kind of like a waiting game and even if your pediatrician's on board, you might not get seen right away and that can be stressful.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's kind of two ends to that. There's the parents that really want the early intervention and they're not able to get it for some reason. There's also plenty of parents that are able to get it and have a great delightful experience. But then I also think that there are other parents that are fearful of getting that early intervention, because what Carly and I find so much is that families, and I get it, I thought this too, that there's like this. proverbial file that follows your kid around for like the rest of their life. And if you got them speech therapy when they were two, and they caught up and they don't need it anymore, that that like follows them to school age, and then you have to like go this different route. But that's not the case.
No, if your child doesn't need extra supports, you don't have to say anything, and they're not going to ask for it.
No, I know, I used to teach special education and parents, when I was a special education teacher, used to always worry about that. They'd be like, "Well, I really want them to get services." But, and they'd act like this file was going to like follow the kid to their Harvard education applications.
Yes, yes.
As the parent, you can do whatever you want with those files, you can have them, and request to have them destroyed. Like there's no shame in it. And it really should be just so normalized that getting the support that is available to you is just what needs to be done. to happen.
Yeah. And like we absolutely think you should share that information with the school if it's going to help your child get the support that they need. But there are so many kids that don't need that extra support when they get to kindergarten because they had this early intervention when they were young and nobody knows in second grade that the kid was a late talker. Like it's just, but I think a lot of families think that that is something to be concerned about. But we don't think you need to be worried.
I love that. Okay, we've talked a little bit about what to do if your child isn't really speaking yet or doesn't have a lot of words yet, but do you also work with children who seem to not really understand language? So what would that look like? Because I know there are kind of like two sides of it, right? There's the expressive language and then there's the receptive language. So what would you tell parents to look for for that?
Katie, go ahead. Okay. So when it comes to understanding of language, like that is huge. Typically kids who have a hard time understanding language also have a hard time with their expressive language. And so we definitely work on that as one of the biggest goals when they're showing signs of not understanding. And those signs could look like you give them a direction and they stare at you blankly like, "I hear you. I know you told me to do something. I don't know what it was."
It can look like behavior. Like parents can kind of misinterpret that as like,
"They never listen. They don't do what I say. They don't care what I say." When in reality, they have a hard time understanding some basic concepts like on or off or under. We give them directions that contain those concepts all the time. Sometimes it can just be a lack of ability of understanding those words yet. So we work with kids on following directions, identifying things. If you said, "Where's the horse in a book?" and your child points to whatever they find on the page because they want to interact with you that way. They want to find what you're asking them to find, but they don't know what the word "horse" means, then we work with them on just identifying objects and pictures and,
yes, to answer your question, we work with a lot of kids on their understanding of language because it is so important and such a precursor for them using their words and expressing their thoughts and ideas. So those are some breakdowns that you might see if you have a child that... that you suspect isn't understanding. Um, a lot of times we see it related to directions.
Yeah. And it can be hard because of course toddlers don't, it's not, it's not normal for toddlers to follow what you're going to say all the time, but you can kind of like, yeah. So you have to kind of clue into like, wait a minute. And I think it takes kind of like a keen eye sometimes to notice this initially because kids take a lot of contextual cues too. Like if everybody's going to the door and putting their shoes on, the child might come, but do they understand just like the words if it was to be, if it were to be like isolated. So yeah, so these kids are going to need a lot more repetition, a lot more visual cues. So if you're experiencing that at home, that's what we would say is like, they might, they're going to need some extra support with like, if you say come and they don't, you might need to go grab them by the hand and, you know, walk like an elephant over to the door, you know, make it fun in a way that you can get them on board with what you're saying.
Yeah. Okay, perfect. So the next thing I want to ask you guys is kind of a controversial topic. I'm sorry. It's screen time. There are so many different opinions out there about screen time and there's so much misinformation out there about screen time. There's like one end of the spectrum where people think that, you know, if their child can learn to give like oral presentations. just by watching YouTube. And then there are other people who think that watching any screens is equivalent to giving your kid crack. So what is true? Is it somewhere in the middle? What are your guys's main thoughts and opinions on screen time? Let's talk about babies. Babies, toddlers, like under two. Should they be watching anything? Is there something that is better to watch than others? What is your opinion?
Okay. So, yeah, this is a tricky one and every family has to make the choice based on their family's needs. For babies, we would definitely say we follow the AAP guidelines, which is no screen time under two. If they see a screen here and there, obviously, it's going to be totally fine. All babies see a phone is fine to FaceTime grandma. It's just, I think, these days. days there's like marketing like you'll see shows on YouTube that's like teacher baby talking or teacher baby first words and unfortunately that's not how babies learn to talk.
Babies and toddlers learn to talk through back and forth interaction with responsive and nurturing caregivers like we were speaking about at the beginning so your baby may repeat something they see on a show, you know, do an action that they see on a show. But when we think about truly what communication is, this is sending a message back and forth between two people. This is a shared experience where one person says something, one says it back. So that is what is going to be the best for your babies, not only brain development, but language development as well.
And I think with screens too with babies, we have to think of like what they're missing out on, like by spending time watching TV because babies need to be moving, they need to be observing their world. Sometimes when we hear people say like, "I can't get anything done," unless I turn on the TV, it's like babies have all different temperaments so I can understand some cannot be put down. Like Katie's, Katie can speak to this because she has really like, you know, when Rachael speaks about temperament, like that is like so true. I mean, seeing six kids between the two of us, I mean, that is like with sleep. Oh my gosh. Same. Like the temperament, I feel like plays such a big role. So anyway, what I'm saying, but for a lot of babies is like, they're fine looking out the window at some leaves on a bush or like putting some pots and pans and some spoons down in the kitchen. They don't need entertainment. Like that is exploring and learning for them. So I would just say like, if you can try, if you're have been relying on a TV, then like try these other options first, that's going to give you like way more bang for your buck developmentally speaking.
Yeah, I think there's just no substitution for like the real thing, you know, especially as a baby. baby.
Yeah, and then, so what about for toddlers then? So are there certain shows that are fine and others that are bad, or is it as little as possible, no matter what they're watching, what do you guys think about two and up then?
Yeah, I mean, I think we look for, I think content context, we look at the three C's, there's the content that your child's viewing, right? Not all content is created equal. There's context, like are you watching it with them? Are you aware of what they're watching? Or do they have an iPad in their bed with the door closed? Like that's much different. And then the third C is your child. So every child is going to have a different temperament. There are some kids that, like my daughter, could watch TV all day long if I let her. And she honestly probably... probably wouldn't be that impacted by it. Whereas like if my one of my sons watches one extra show, it's like, whoa, I can tell you watched an extra show. Same parents, same thing. They're watching totally different vibes after TV.
Yeah. So it's different. So your child very much matters and what they're into matters. So we kind of look at at screen time for toddlers through the lens lens of those three C's, child context and content, content, child context and content. Um, yeah, I think we should add a fourth C and it should be caregiver because this one is for Katie and I is like, we will not put on a show that we find super annoying.
So like one thing for us is like, we're just not big YouTube people because we get annoyed, the popups, the ads, the sidebar, then they want to watch the hamster going through the maze with all the plastic balls. And we're like, no, we get annoyed. So for us, YouTube is like, we can't handle it. It's too, it's just opening a huge can of worms. We call it the rabbit hole. It's just, and they find the little random things that are way over commercialized. So yeah.
Yeah. I'm the same way there's like no YouTube in my house. My son went through a brief Blippi phase when he was about three during COVID. And it was truly like the darkest time of my life. I heard those songs in my sleep all night long and yeah, YouTube, I just, I feel like they can, I mean, my kids don't watch TV on tablets and maybe that's part of it. We would have to put it on the TV, but that's another thing I wanted to ask you about actually…. is like, you talked about context. So would that be iPad versus TV? Because I always feel like having them watch on the TV, it's more of like a shared experience. Like I can see they're watching, they're watching together. And I just don't like the idea of them being on an iPad unsupervised.
Yeah, no, we're the same. We're the same. We actually had bought tablets when we went to Oregon, a couple of summers ago and we told the kids that we rented them.
Yeah, this is hilarious. She tells her kids they're rented. You are a genius. - They're rented, but they're in a closet.
They're in a closet. They're in a closet rented.
You're so smart. Oh my God, because yeah, we have two iPads that we only use for like plane rides and travel. They don't ever get to use an iPad like once in a while if like my husband's watching football or something and they wanna watch a show and it's the weekend and they're like, "What the hell is going on?" they're allowed to, we'll prop up the iPad while they're eating lunch or something. But otherwise, they don't use them at all, but they know that they exist. So they ask for them sometimes and I have to say it every time.
Totally. So we told them that we rented them. I have another friend who tells her kids what they only work on airplanes. She's like, "Oh, they only work on airplanes."
So anyway, we... totally agree with you. TV, I think what's really hard is like we know that co -watching is incredibly helpful for kids, but for us, we use screen time when we need a break.
Right, we're doing something else.
I wouldn't be offering you a screen, but it's also really helpful when it's on the TV and you know they're watching Bluey, you can say something like, "Oh, "Oh, did bingo fall off of her bike?" Like, even if you just heard it for like one second and you can know what they're watching, when they play out what they saw, you kind of have like context for what they're playing if they're building an elaborate fort from something that they watched or, you know, pretending like they're an octonaut or something underwater, like you know what they're talking about as opposed to like when they have the iPad, you're not, you just aren't privy to as much. And it's hard to be part of that world.
Well, and then when they try to communicate with you about what they've watched and you don't know the show or the characters or what's happened, it's like, you have no idea how to interpret that language for them. And that can be frustrating, too. Like, we've definitely had that happen with us when my kids were a little bit smaller. And, we couldn't understand them as much.
So, okay, you mentioned Bluey, which I love. And I would love to hear some of your other favorites or approved shows for toddlers and little kids.
We love Daniel Tiger, too, as like a good little first show. It's like the routines, we like the little songs in it and things like that. It's cute. We love Tumble Leaf. Yeah, it's nice.
Yeah. Octonauts, my kids have always been like super interested in like sea creatures and like that. that kind of stuff. So they've sometimes like the plot kind of went over their head when they were little, but like they liked the animated, you know, animal creatures. And I think like when we look for shows, we look for calm vibes. We look for positive messages. We look for just kind of a slower pace. And shows aren't trying to sell kids on more and... and products. I love Duck and Goose. Have you guys watched Duck and Goose on Apple TV?
No, but I have a couple of those books.
Do you know that book?
I didn't know it was a show. - Yeah, it's a show.
It's really cute. And it's darling. Like I am obsessed with Duck and Goose.
That's a really good one. Apple TV actually has a bunch of slower, slower -paced shows these days.
I was gonna say, I don't think I've ever checked out the kid selection on Apple TV. He was usually on either Disney or Apple Prime. Yeah. They have a couple of notebooks that they like, but okay, I'll check that out. We're going to take one more quick break, and then when we come back, we're going to talk about how we can empower ourselves as parents, and we're going to talk a little bit about books when we come back.
Okay, welcome back to Katie and Carly from We Talkers. Before we wrap up today's episode, we were just talking about TV, and so we're going to watch great shows. And I would also love to hear your thoughts on books and how to choose appropriate books for your child based on their age or their interest and how we can kind of make those books come alive for them while we're reading to encourage their language development.
We love that. We love how effective books can be for kids, language development and their brain development and how it can be such a time of connection for parents and kids. especially when life feels like really stressful. I feel like it's really regulating to sit down and not really have to think but just like look at a book that offers you something to talk about and slow down a little bit and notice what your child's interested in.
So we love book reading for lots of reasons. And one way that we really love to encourage kids to participate is just by giving yourself permission not to read the words on the page and just noticing what they notice and chatting about it. If they see if they're really into tractors and they point to the tractor, you'd be like, "Oh, wow, that's a big green tractor. I bet that farmer is going to work hard today," or something like that.

And you don't have to read the little synopsis on the page about, you know, the wheels if you don't want to or whatever else the book offers. So I think like giving yourself permission not to read the words, really helping the book come to life with like sound effects can be really engaging to kids and pretty easy for adults to make up. So if it's that tractor again, like room, room, the tractor is going to go. Oh, it just sounds different than how we talk to them in our day to day. day. And so they kind of perk up and notice, pay attention, sounds are easier for kids to imitate than true words are. So those are a couple of tips, Carly, what else would we say about books?
I think the overall goal is just having fun with it. It's not to get through the book, it's not to sit for a certain amount of time. It's just you want to make books a positive experience in your home. So that starts at a young age. So keep the books, board books out as toys, you know, just have fun with it. And if you're one tip we have, if you're toddlers, like, or if you're baby, if you're thinking like my child will not sit and listen to a book, like there's no way. They all a lot of kids go through this stage because they're busy. They want to be up and moving. Like one thing they don't need to be sitting in your lap, they can be kind of wandering around and you read it. They can be in a high chair at snack time and you read it and they're somewhat occupied. They can be in the bath and you read a book. So it doesn't have to be like what you see like in the nursery, in a chair, like bedtime bliss.
Totally and every kid is so different too. Like my oldest, we used to joke that his favorite toys were books. Like he didn't want to play with toys. All he wanted to do as a baby was look at books….under a year old. That's all he wanted to do. My next two, my girls were just like, they would not sit still for a book until they were probably one and a half or two. But yeah, we had stuff like that where like, I would just sit down and start opening and looking through a book and they would see what I was doing and want to come over to me and check it out too. And we would just, I love that tip you gave Katie about just talking about what you see on the book. Like you don't have to read every word.
I posted a reel. recently about reading at bedtime and so many parents messaged me like, "But my kid won't let me read the words." Like they just keep turning the page, turning the page, turning the page, or trying to rip the book apart or something like that. Yes. Yeah. So that's a really good tip to just like let go of the story. You don't need to tell them the whole story, just, you know, get them engaged with the book in some way.
Yeah. Yeah. And even, and you can get longer, right? Like if you have a child who has a really short attention span. and they, you know, oblige you for two seconds, like, oh, dog, cat, fish, oh, you're done? Okay, we're done. And next time maybe we get to dog, cat, fish, and, you know, whatever, other animal, bear.
Like you can get, as long as it's positive, you will get longer stretches of book rate as long as it continues to be positive. But if you're, like, wrangling, them to stay with a book, you're going to probably have the opposite effect of what you desire. That's so true.
Guys, I had such a good time talking with you today. One thing that I always try to ask when parents come on the podcast which most people that come on the podcast are parents, but I would love to hear from each of you what something no one told you was like what before you became a mom, what do you wish someone had told you that you just like we're not ready for.
I think for me, it's that I didn't realize it would be so much of like a personal growth journey. Like I was thinking more about the kids and like, oh, we'll have to change diapers and feed them or whatever. And then I just had no idea how much I would need to like expand and grow as a person and how much love there would be, but then also how hard it would be and just how much you just need to like keep showing up every day.
How about you, Katie? I mean, I have a lot of thoughts on it, but I think the thing that comes to mind is like you can have the best intentions and the most education and it still might not turn out exactly how you were picturing and just kind of coming to peace with like parenting the child in front of you and being the person that you are like is just a unique combination that nobody else has the answers for all the time. I think that's what I would say.
That's so true. And those are actually some of the most common responses from people is that.
Oh really? Yeah, like people just say it really doesn't have anything to do with the baby or the stuff or the nursery. I just didn't realize how much I would change or like how I would go through or how I have to learn how to like repair it myself. And yes, with my own stuff. Yeah, a lot of people say that. So thank you for sharing that.
Where can people connect with you online and find all of the amazing resources that you've mentioned throughout this episode. So we're at WeeTalkers .com. And you can find us on Instagram at WeeTalkers. It's WEE like little You have a songs and stories platform. Can you share just a little bit about what that is? And then you also have a talk toddler course. Yeah. So speaking of screen time and books, we've combined, you know, two things that are near and dear to our hearts and basically created our own kind of show. Um, that is basically like library story time. Have you been to library story time, Rachael? Like, yeah. Oh my gosh. Love it.
My mother -in -law is a librarian. So my kids love the library, love story time. Yeah, we've done that since they were babies and it's so much fun and it's just a nice like free thing to go do and like need other toys and just to get out. So I always tell people to check out their local libraries.
Yes, go to your local library and yeah, if you're at home and you can't because the schedule blah blah blah, you can watch us online on our own platform. It's not on YouTube. YouTube. It's on a private platform because it's for young ones. So we want it to be like safe. We want parents to know, okay, I go on there. I know it's gonna be Carly and Katie like reading a high quality book. It's gonna be a good experience. It's simple. There's no flashy graphics. There's no green screen. It's us chilling on the floor. We don't get paid much more. Yeah, you know. (laughing) So we're not trying to keep them on, you know, on there forever. Like the episodes are short. There's a hello and goodbye. It's very much like library story time with a twist of, you know, our skills as speech and language therapists.
So I'm going to check it out with Leni because she's very into music and songs right now. I think she would love it.
Yeah, she probably would love it. And it's, it's good. Like it's a great like first kind of screen time option, but we also think it's great for preschool age. like because it has a lot of like the early literacy, like we heard you talking about with big city readers. Yeah, about, and I was like, oh my gosh, like we do all of this in songs and stories, like as far as like the school and awareness and you know, all those kind of early literacy skills that we want our kids to have before kindergarten. So, oh my gosh, so good.
All right, well, thank you so much for joining us today. Please, everyone, go for it. WeeTalkers on Instagram. They post so much helpful information. Thank you so much for joining us today, Katie and Carly. I'll talk to you guys soon. Yeah, thanks. - Thanks for having us. - Thanks for chatting. - Thanks for having us. Bye. - Bye.

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