Robert Ebsen

I want water. I want blueberries. I want apple.

I decided to help my 22-month-old granddaughter learn to produce sentences.

It’s something I had done throughout my career as a special education teacher. The children with whom I worked had moderate-to-severe speech and language difficulties. I taught many of them speech and language from scratch.

My granddaughter’s speech is within normal limits. Her language is well above normal. Because of this, it appears that her speech is delayed, relative to her language. For this reason, some people, unfamiliar with speech and language development, think that my granddaughter’s speech is delayed. I have decided to give her a little push.

My granddaughter can imitate individual words. Here is the technique I used to help my granddaughter to combine words and make sentences.

First, I drew three boxes from left to right on a piece of paper.  In the first box I wrote the word I.  In the second box I wrote the word want. In the third box, I wrote the word apple, and I drew an apple above the word.

Next, I said to my granddaughter, “Give me your pointing finger.” Holding her finger and touching the first box, I said I. We touched the second box, and I said want. We touched the third box, and I said apple.

After doing this several times, my granddaughter was able to touch the words and say them: I want apple.

Next, I drew boxes on three separate index cards. I wrote the words I, want, and apple in those boxes. I drew a picture of an apple above the word apple.

Today, I will set out several objects in front of my granddaughter. I will have her practice saying what is on the first two cards: I want.

Then, I will ask her, “What do you want?” she can decide what she wants, and say, for example, “I want blueberries.”  I will give her the blueberries as I say “I want blueberries – good job!” I will put the third card, which reads blueberries, next to the first two cards, and we will read the sentence together.

My granddaughter’s speech and language will come together easily and beautifully.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com