Your parent toolkit
Wondering how to help your child at home? These are the ten skills we coach parents in — follow your child’s lead, model language instead of quizzing, praise what you want more of, keep routines predictable and stay calm through big feelings. You spend far more hours with your child than any therapist ever could, and that is exactly what makes them work.
What can I do at home to help my child talk?
Get face to face, follow whatever your child is interested in, and name it instead of quizzing them. Say the word you want to hear, then pause and wait. Praise any attempt — a look, a point, a sound. Ten minutes of this, several times a day, beats one long lesson.
- Wait longer than feels natural. Count five silent seconds after you speak — that gap is often where a sound or word appears.
- Comment, don’t test. “A ball!” teaches; “what’s this?” only checks.
- Use the day you already have. Breakfast, bath and the walk to the gate beat any worksheet.
These are the same skills we coach parents in at our children’s therapy centre in Multan, written out plainly so you can use them tonight. They work alongside therapy — they don’t replace an assessment, and they aren’t a treatment for any condition.
Please don’t try to do all of these at once. Even one, used often, makes a real difference. Pick the one that suits your child this week, keep it light and playful, and build from there. On the days when nothing seems to be working, our little reminders for hard days were written for exactly that.
Which skill should I start with?
Start with the one skill that matches your biggest worry this week, and use it for seven days before adding another. If your child says few or no words, begin with skills 1 to 4. If meltdowns and behaviour are the hard part, begin with 5, 6 and 10. If leaving the house is the battle, begin with 7.
- Barely any words yet — follow their lead, get face to face and wait, model instead of quizzing, create reasons to communicate.
- Talks, but behaviour is the struggle — descriptive praise, attention to the good, and staying calm during big feelings.
- Transitions, mornings and bedtime — predictable routines with a visual schedule, plus a two-minute warning before every change.
- 1
Follow your child’s lead
Let your child choose the play, and join in on their terms instead of directing.
Why it helps: Children learn best when they’re genuinely interested and feel in charge. When you follow their lead, you build connection — and you give them a real reason to communicate with you.
How to do it
- Get down to their level and watch what they’re drawn to.
- Join their play without taking over or correcting.
- Copy what they do, then add a little — and see what happens.
- 2
Get face to face and wait
Position yourself at your child’s eye level, then pause expectantly.
Why it helps: Being face to face helps your child see your mouth and expressions — and a pause gives them the space to start communicating.
How to do it
- Sit or kneel so you’re eye to eye.
- Do something fun, then stop and wait, looking at them expectantly.
- Count to five in your head — give them time to react, look or speak.
- 3
Model language, don’t quiz
Say the words you want to hear, instead of testing your child with questions.
Why it helps: A steady stream of “what’s this?” can start to feel like a test. Modelling simply hands your child the words to copy, and there’s no way to get it wrong.
How to do it
- Instead of “what’s this?”, simply name it: “a ball!”
- Narrate what you and your child are doing: “pouring the water”.
- Keep your language just a step above theirs — short and clear.
- 4
Expand what they say
Take your child’s words and add a little more.
Why it helps: Expanding shows your child the next step in language without correcting them — they feel understood and hear a richer version.
How to do it
- If your child says “car”, you say “big car!” or “car go”.
- If they say “want juice”, you say “you want juice, please”.
- Add just one or two words — not a whole lecture.
- 5
Use descriptive praise
Praise the specific thing your child did, not just “good boy/girl”.
Why it helps: Describing exactly what they did well helps them understand and repeat it — and it feels more genuine.
How to do it
- Say what you saw: “You put all the blocks away — great tidying!”
- Catch effort, not just success: “You tried so hard with that.”
- Praise straight away, while it’s fresh.
- 6
Give attention to the good
Notice and respond to the behaviour you want more of.
Why it helps: Children repeat whatever gets your attention. Catching the good — not just reacting to the difficult — grows more of it.
How to do it
- Look out for small good moments and comment on them warmly.
- Give calm, low-key attention to minor annoying behaviour where safe.
- Make “caught being good” your default, several times a day.
- 7
Build routines and visual schedules
Keep daily routines predictable, and show the plan with pictures.
Why it helps: Knowing what comes next lowers anxiety and reduces meltdowns — especially for children who find change hard.
How to do it
- Keep key routines (meals, bath, bed) in the same order each day.
- Use simple pictures to show the sequence of the day or a task.
- Give a gentle warning before transitions: “two more minutes, then tidy up”.
- 8
Read together every day
Share a book daily — and make it a two-way chat, not a performance.
Why it helps: Shared reading is one of the most powerful things you can do for language, attention and closeness.
How to do it
- Talk about the pictures rather than only reading the words.
- Follow your child’s interest — it’s fine to skip pages or re-read favourites.
- Pause and let them fill in words in familiar books.
- 9
Create reasons to communicate
Set up little moments where your child needs to ask, choose or request.
Why it helps: If everything arrives before your child even asks, there’s no reason to say a word. A few small gaps in the day are often what spark the first ones.
How to do it
- Offer choices: hold up two things and wait — “apple or banana?”
- Put a favourite toy in sight but out of reach.
- Give a little, then pause — a bit of juice, then wait for “more”.
- 10
Stay calm during big feelings
Be the calm, steady presence when your child is overwhelmed.
Why it helps: Children borrow our calm to settle their own storm. Match a big reaction with a big reaction and the feeling only grows; stay steady and you help them find their way back down.
How to do it
- Lower your voice and slow down — your calm is contagious.
- Name the feeling: “you’re really cross the tower fell”.
- Comfort first, teach later — problem-solve once they’re calm.
What does this look like tomorrow morning?
Use the moments you already have rather than setting aside a lesson. Six ordinary points in the day — breakfast, getting dressed, the walk out, tidy-up, bath and one book at bedtime — give your child dozens of chances to communicate. Two minutes each, every day, is worth more than an hour on Sunday.
- Breakfast — give a little, then pause. Half a paratha, then wait with the plate in sight for a look, a sound or a word before the next piece.
- Getting dressed — hold up two shirts and wait: “red or blue?” The silence after the question is doing the work, not the question.
- On the way out — narrate in short phrases, one step above what your child says: “big bus”, “bus go”, “bus gone”.
- Tidy-up — praise the exact thing, on the spot: “you put all the blocks in the box.” Not “good boy”.
- Bath time — the same three or four phrases every night: “pour water”, “all wet”, “all done”. Repetition is not boring to a brain that is still learning the word.
- Bedtime — one book, talk about the pictures instead of reading every word, and leave the last word of a familiar line for your child to fill in.
If a particular moment is the one that always goes wrong — the shop, the doctor’s waiting room, a family gathering — we have walked through the common situations parents find hardest separately.
What usually changes first?
Progress rarely starts with words. What tends to shift first is connection — your child looks at you more, stays in the game longer, brings you things. Then gestures and pointing grow, then sounds and attempts, then single words, then two words joined together.
This is why we ask parents to count looks, points and sounds in the first few weeks, not words. If you only measure words, you can miss real progress and lose heart. Write down one thing your child did today that they were not doing a month ago.
Should we speak Urdu or English at home?
Speak the language you are most fluent and most relaxed in — for most families here that is Urdu, Saraiki or Punjabi. Children can learn two languages at once. Rich, easy talk in one strong language helps far more than careful, broken talk in another, and words from both languages count together.
Mixing two languages in one sentence is normal bilingual development, not confusion, and it does not cause speech delay. What does matter is that your child hears plenty of connected, back-and-forth talk from the people who love them.
اردو · Urdu — گھر پر یہ آزمائیں
- بچے کے ساتھ آمنے سامنے بیٹھیں اور تھوڑا انتظار کریں۔
- سوال پوچھنے کے بجائے چیز کا نام بتائیں: ”گیند!“
- بچہ ایک لفظ کہے تو اُس میں ایک لفظ اور بڑھا دیں: ”گیند“ سے ”بڑی گیند“۔
- بچے کی پسندیدہ چیز نظر میں مگر پہنچ سے دور رکھیں، تاکہ وہ مانگے۔
- روزانہ تھوڑی دیر ساتھ کہانی پڑھیں اور تصویروں پر بات کریں۔
- غصے یا رونے کے وقت آواز نرم رکھیں — پہلے تسلی، سکھانا بعد میں۔
Agar aap soch rahe hain “mera bacha bolta nahi” ya “bacha saaf nahi bolta”, to yeh rozana ki chhoti aadatein wohi hain jo hum walidain ko sikhate hain. Har roz thori der, hafte bhar — yehi asli mehnat hai.
More of these tips in Urdu and Roman Urdu sit inside our home programme for a child who isn’t talking yet.
When is home practice not enough?
Use these skills, and get your child looked at properly as well if any of the following is true. Home practice is support, not an assessment — it cannot tell you why your child is struggling, and waiting is the one thing that is hard to undo.
- No babbling by around 12 months, no pointing or waving, or no response to their own name.
- No single words by around 18 months, or no two-word phrases by around two and a half years.
- Your child used words or skills before and has lost them.
- Family cannot understand most of what your three-year-old says.
- You have any worry at all about hearing — frequent ear infections, turning the volume up, not startling at loud sounds.
- Feeding, choking, coughing on drinks, or a very restricted range of foods.
- Distress, meltdowns or rigidity that take over most days for your family.
None of these means a diagnosis. They mean it is time for someone to look properly. A quick, free way to start is our free developmental check for parents, which walks you through what is typical at your child’s age. We will always send you to a doctor or a hearing test first where that is the right order, and we say so plainly when a child needs something we do not provide.
If your child has already been given a diagnosis and you are not sure what happens next, start with what to do after a diagnosis.
Questions parents ask about helping at home
Short, honest answers about using these skills at home. Booking, timings and what a first session involves are answered on our main FAQ page, linked below.
How long does it take before I notice a change?
Nobody can promise a timeline, and any centre that does is guessing. What parents most often notice first, sometimes within a week or two, is more back-and-forth: your child looks at you longer, brings you things, protests when you stop the game. New words usually take longer and arrive unevenly. Keep going on the quiet weeks — they are part of it.
My child understands everything but will not talk. Will these skills still help?
Yes, and two of them matter most. Get face to face and wait a full five seconds, and build in small reasons to communicate — offer choices, hold a favourite toy in sight but out of reach, give a little and pause. Understanding without talking is common, but it is also worth an assessment rather than more waiting.
We speak Urdu and English at home. Do words from both languages count?
They count together. A child who says ten Urdu words and five English words has fifteen words, not five. Mixing the two in one sentence is normal bilingual development, not confusion, and it does not cause speech delay. Keep using the language you are most fluent and most relaxed in — that is the one your child hears best.
Do cartoons, YouTube or a talking app teach my child to talk?
Not on their own. A screen never waits for your child, never responds to a look and never repairs a misunderstanding, and those exchanges are what build language. If you do use a screen, sit with your child, talk about what is happening and pause for their reaction — that turns watching into a conversation.
Do I need to buy flashcards, toys or a special programme?
No. Every skill here works with what is already in your home — mealtimes, bath time, getting dressed, a bucket of water, one book read many times. Buying more toys tends to shorten play rather than deepen it. Your face, your voice and a few seconds of waiting are the real materials.
My child is seven. Is this only for toddlers?
The principles hold, the level changes. With an older child, follow their lead into their interests rather than their play, expand a sentence instead of a single word, and use descriptive praise for effort with schoolwork or getting ready. Predictable routines and a calm adult during big feelings matter just as much at seven as at two.
If I do all this at home, do we still need therapy?
Home practice and therapy do different jobs. These skills give your child many more chances to communicate every day, which is exactly what therapy relies on. What they cannot do is work out why your child is struggling or set the right targets — that needs an assessment. If you are unsure, talk to us first; the first consultation is free.
Put these to work with our play & games and free printable visual schedules and charts, read why parent involvement matters so much, or browse every question parents ask us.
Want coaching tailored to your child?
In therapy, we show you which of these to reach for and how, for your child at their stage. Message us to get started.
MPS Road, Block A Model Town, Multan (near Bloomfield Hall School, Street No. 2) · Mon–Sat, 10 AM – 7 PM