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Expert Q&A

	By Kate Cohen-Posey Therapist

I have 2-year-old triplets. One of my girls speaks very softly. Every time she speaks, the ending of the sentence just trails off. She appears to have no confidence in her statements. Is there anything I can do to help her? I also notice that sometimes she tries to communicate with her sisters and they ignore her. Could this be part of the reason?

There could be numerous causes for your daughter?s sentences trailing off. You might want to talk to someone at a speech and hearing center to rule out any physical problems before considering the more likely psychological factors. There are several things you can do to help:

• Mirror her soft tone when you respond to her. Do not do this in a taunting way. Mirroring helps children become more aware.
• Engage in play activities in which you pass a toy microphone (echo phone back and forth).
• Engage in play activities when you ask her to speak more softly, then louder, then softer, then much louder, then much softer, etc.
• Compliment her on how her voice is becoming stronger, even if it isn?t. This is a nice way of reminding her to speak louder.
• When she is talking to her sisters, ask them to repeat what she said.
• Use easy rewards (like tic tacs) when her sisters can repeat her words and also reward her for speaking in a way that can be heard.

This should be a good start to get her on the right track. If one idea doesn?t work, try something else but do not keep doing what does not work. Reminders to speak up can actually be inhibiting.

Kate Cohen-Posey
Author of How to Handle Bullies, Teasers and Other Meanies

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