1. Letting the Screen Do the Talking

Everyone recommends to watch Miss Rachel for a toddler who isn’t talking yet, so she’s the first thing we put on for them on our tablets.

But a 2024 study in JAMA Pediatrics found that by age 3, every extra minute of screen time was linked to nearly 5 fewer sounds and words from the toddler himself. A screen can say “banana” all day. The show does all the talking. He just sits and listens, and never has to say a word himself.

What he needs isn’t more words coming at him. It’s a reason to use his own.

2. “Reading More Books” Without Giving Him Anything to Do

It sounds simple until you try it. You open the book, and he grabs the page, flips three at once, and climbs off your lap.

Most of us don’t want to give up, so we keep reading anyway, to the back of his head while he plays across the room. That leaves him half-hearing words from a book he’s already walked away from.

He doesn’t need more books. He needs something to do on every page.

3. Narrating Everything You Do

It’s the most common advice for a late talker: talk through your whole day. “Mommy’s cracking the egg. Now we stir.” The idea is that the more words he hears, the sooner he’ll start saying them.

But if he already understands way more than he says, hearing more words isn’t the problem. He knows “egg.” He can point to it. What he’s missing is saying it, and narration never asks him to. The words are about what your hands are doing, while he stands there watching you cook.

He doesn’t need a running commentary. He needs words tied to something he’s doing himself.

4. Making Him “Say It”

Flashcards and repeat-after-me feel like the most direct way to practice. Hold up the cow. “Say cow.”

But a card is a word and a picture with nothing happening. There’s no cow hiding, no moo, nothing he made happen, so there’s no concept to connect. And being put on the spot is exactly when a late talker goes quiet. You get the blank stare, and the cards end up on the floor.

He doesn’t need to be tested on words. He needs them tied to something he just made happen.

5. Buying Books That Talk for Him

Sound books and talking toys feel like the upgrade. He presses the button, and the book says “cow.”

But pressing a button is the same move for every word, so it doesn’t connect to any of them. Peeling a banana means “peel.” Kicking a ball means “kick.” Pressing a button just means pressing a button. And the book says the word for him, so he never has to.He doesn’t need a book that talks.

He needs one where the thing he does is the word.

6. Expecting Words to Stick on Their Own

Every mistake on this list has the same root: he hears a word, but never connects it to what it means. A screen he can’t touch. A page he’s already left. A card where nothing happens. A button that means nothing.

That’s what the Peek & Learn flaps fix. Every spread has a flap, pull tab or slider. He peels the banana and hears “banana.” He kicks the ball and hears “kick.” The word connects to the thing at the exact moment he makes it happen, with you right there saying it.

Ten books, ten topics, 5–10 minutes a day. The easiest place to start.

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