Cornerstone Speech Therapy Strategies: Self Talk and Parallel Talk

Two effective narration strategies anyone can incorporate into their daily routine with their child are self-talk and parallel talk. By incorporating these strategies into daily interactions, you can provide a rich language environment that stimulates your child’s communication development. Let’s explore the power of self-talk and parallel talk, and how they can be implemented.

Self Talk

Self-talk is a great strategy for increasing the number of words your child hears in a day. All you have to do is talk about what you are doing as you do it. You are narrating your actions, describing what you are experiencing, observing, and thinking about.

When using self-talk, you can talk about what you are eating, touching, drinking, doing, seeing, smelling, and thinking. You will narrate your actions as you do them. This way, your child can hear language paired with the model of you performing the actions.

Examples:

• While preparing your morning coffee with your baby on your hip you may say, “Let’s make mommy’s coffee! Open the cupboard. Take out the coffee. Take out one filter. Put the filter in the machine. Scoop the coffee. 1, 2, 3! Let’s get the water! Fill it up. Pour the water. Turn it on. All done!”

• While playing with a baby doll, “Hi baby! Oh, you’re hungry? Let’s get your bottle. Mmm, milk. Drink milk. Ohh you’re all done? Wipe your face. Hug! Are you tired baby? Let’s go night night. (Sing twinkle twinkle.) Here’s your blanket. Pat, pat, night night!”

• While making a sandwich for lunch you may say, “It’s time to make a sandwich! Let’s get the ingredients. Open the fridge and take out the bread, cheese, and veggies. Lay the bread on the counter. Now, let’s spread on mayonnaise. Spread, spread, spread. Grab a slice of cheese. Put it on top! Let’s add some lettuce. I’m cutting the tomato. It is juicy! Yum! Put the tomato on top. Now, take the other slice of bread and press it down gently. Cut the sandwich in half. Cut, cut, cut. Perfect! Let’s eat it.”

• While taking a walk outside you may say, “It’s a beautiful sunny day! Let’s go for a walk. Step outside. Wow, it’s warm. I feel the sun on my face. I see the tall trees. They’re green and beautiful. I see the leaves moving. ‘Whoosh’ the wind is blowing. Look, an orange butterfly! It’s fluttering from flower to flower. Flit, float, flit float. Listen, I hear birds chirping! Chirp, chirp. They’re singing! Nature is amazing!”

Parallel Talk

Parallel talk is just like self-talk, but instead of talking about what you are doing, you’re going to talk about what your child is doing. This interactive narration not only expands their vocabulary but also fosters their ability to comprehend and communicate.

If your child is playing with cars, you will use simple words, phrases, and sentences to describe what is happening.

Examples:

• As your child drives a toy car, you can say, “The car drives fast! The red car crashed! Driving. Vrooooommm. Beep beep. Watch out! The car is coming. Go car, go!”

• As your child takes a bath you can say, “You’re splashing in the water. Pop the bubbles. Pop, pop, pop. Amy’s touching the soap. The soap is smooth. Rub rub rub. All clean! Pour the water. Pouring.”

• While playing with blocks: “You’re building a tall tower. Stack them up. Up, up, up. Wow, it’s getting sooooo tall! Ohh, will it fall? The blocks are balancing. Red block. Blue block. BOOM! It fell! Do it again.”

• While reading a picture book, “You’re turning the pages. You see a tree! You’re touching the tree. Oh, a happy puppy. Woof woof! The puppy barks. Turn the page. Go back! There’s the boy. The boy is laughing.”

• While playing with play dough, “You have a ball of play dough. Squeeze it! Squish, squish, squish. Oh you’re poking the dough. Roll it up. Roll it. Roll it. It’s a long snake. Stretch it. Stretch it. SSSSS, eep! Press it with the cutter. You made a star! Play dough is fun!”

Parallel talk allows you to capture specific moments and experiences in real-time. Use play sounds and words like “Boom!” and “Vrrroooom” to imitate sounds, adding an element of excitement to your child’s play. Additionally, highlight their observations and encourage curiosity by commenting on what they’re focusing on, such as saying, “You’re looking at the wheels. They spin!”

By implementing self-talk and parallel talk strategies, you can create an engaging language-rich environment that promotes your child’s communication development. Through self-talk, we narrate our actions, thoughts, and experiences, providing a model for language use while parallel talk focuses on describing the child’s actions, enhancing their comprehension and communication skills.