The other day I asked on Facebook, “What word do you WISH your child could say?” Almost all of you said “I love you” or “love you.” Mama and siblings’ names were also popular requests but we will focus on “I love you” today because you may be able to help your little one achieve it!
Your child may not be able to say “I love you” but you need to know that they do. They love you A LOT. And they love you unconditionally.
What if I could help you learn how to help your child say, “I love you?” in their own special way? I will walk you through, step by step, how I would do it if I were working with your little sprout. Are you getting excited?
A bit of background information to make your life easier before we get started. It is important to know that certain sounds are not expected until certain ages. For example, the “L” in love is not expected until 5 years of age. So if it’s too hard for your little one to say or your child is under 5 years and doesn’t have too many words, let’s be fair to them and not expect them to say the “L” sound yet. Sound like a deal?
Okay, now we are ready to get started!
- Step 1: Show them how to do it. Use your hands and point to your heart and say “love” then point to them and say “you”. The more you do this the more they will get used to seeing it and the sooner they will try it themselves. If your child is really good at copying hand movements you may even see them do it right away!
- Step 2: Work on “love”. Let the child use a “W” sound in place of “L”. This is what children do before they get the “L” sound so we will make it easier if we teach them “wuv” instead of “love”. That’s right, I want you to say “WUV” not “love”. You may feel silly, but that is okay, the sillier you feel the more likely your child will respond to what you are trying to get them to do.
- Step 3: Work on “you”. Even the word “you” can be tricky so we can make this easier by just expecting “oo”. Stick with me here…it will make more sense as you keep reading.
- Step 4: Put the words together “wuv oo”. If your child said “wuv oo” would your heart melt? I bet it would! Our goal is not always to make a message completely clear from the start but to just get that message out. So let’s make it easier to say “love you” and say “wuv oo” when we are trying to help our little one say it back to us. I know you can do it!
- Step 5: Keep modeling “wuv ooh” and one day when your child has their “L” and “Y” sounds they will be able to change it over to “love you”…in the meantime let’s take what we can get because showing love is showing love, no matter what it sounds like. Am I right?
With Valentine’s Day around the corner many of us have love on the mind. How fun would it be to start working on this for a few minutes a day between now and February 14th. It will take longer for some of us to hear it but take small baby steps and it will come.
Be sure to let us know how it goes. We would love to see your little sprout in action once they get “wuv oo” or even part of the message down!
Will you keep us posted?
With Love,
Hallie