One of the Most Common Mistakes Parents Make When Teaching Their Child to Talk

At about one year of age, your child learns their first words. This is very exciting as your child now has a voice!  As a parent, you are likely eager to help your child talk but often without realizing it you can hold your child back.  We have highlighted one of the most common mistakes parents make when trying to help their child talk – teaching the word "please" too early.

Many people think a child who uses their manners is nice and likeable and must have good parents.  Right?  As a parent, of course you want your child to be liked and treated well by others.  But when did we start believing that babies should be polite?  You might not have given this much thought before, but we strongly encourage you to now think from your child’s perspective on this issue.

I am 14 months old and am learning to use words to communicate. I am asked to say the word "please" when I want a variety of things.  It makes mom and dad happy when I say it.  I feel good when I get what I want.  Sometimes when I say "please", I don’t get what I want.  That makes me mad.

When your child says "please", you are left to guess what they want based on the context.  You can only guess so many times before they give up feeling frustrated.  Even before they have enough words to get basic needs met, many parents are focusing on getting their child to say "please".  We hope you are beginning to understand how disempowering teaching "please" is for your child at this stage of development.  You are unknowingly setting them up to fail as a communicator.  We don’t teach the word ‘please’ until at least two years of age when the idea of being polite and understanding another’s perspective is just beginning to develop and your child has a large vocabulary and is using word combinations.

So if you don’t teach "please", what should you teach?  We teach parents about Power Words™ and guide them to create an individualized list for their child in our Time 2 Talk Babies workshop. Your child will feel empowered when they use Power Words™ to communicate.  Some common universal Power Words™ to model often for your child are "more" and "all done".