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Parents can help children to expand their vocabulary by responding to and extending children’s attempts to pronounce new words. These opportunities often come up in the course of everyday activities. In this clip, 18-month-old Paloma persists in her attempts to buckle the safety straps on her chair.

Paloma’s mother, Bi-sek, notices that Paloma is highly motivated to master buckling when she says, “Der’s one,” and walks toward the chair. Bi-sek takes advantage of this opportunity to develop Paloma’s language skills by joining Paloma as a partner in this high-interest activity when she says, “There’s another one. Oh yeah, there’s another buckle for this part.” Bi-sek then elaborates on the process and adds vocabulary by saying, “Now we’ve just got to make it stretch long enough.” By talking about what she is doing as she works with the straps, Bi-sek also models the use of oral language for Paloma.

Imitation is often an enjoyable activity for children who are learning to talk. In this clip, Bi-sek responds to Paloma’s attempts to say the word “buckle” by modeling, repeating, and expanding on Paloma’s attempts to imitate her. She moves to where she can make eye contact with Paloma, and she shows her enthusiasm for Paloma’s attempts through her body language and facial expression.

In addition to watching patiently, expressing a shared interest, and modeling the use of language, Paloma’s mother engages her in the back-and-forth of conversation, often expanding on Paloma’s one- or two-word expressions. For example, when Paloma playfully drops the buckle to the seat, and says, “Uh, oh…der,” Bi-sek laughs and joins in the joke by saying, “Uh oh, it fell out.” Paloma looks at her mother and says, “It is down.” Bi-sek affirms her statement by saying, “Yes.” Paloma says, “Fall down.” And her mother responds with, “Put it back on.” Paloma responds, “Yah.”

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