Like many toddlers, my little boy loves phones. Unfortunately, toy phones no longer cut it. He knows they are fake. Obviously, I couldn’t just give him a real phone because he did not know how to use it properly. So, I decided it was high time to teach my toddler the basics of how to talk on a real phone.
The first step was to teach him what to do when the phone rang in a normal situation. (I didn’t want him to just start answering the phone, willy nilly.) I used my cell phone to call the home phone. When it rang, I asked him to bring it to me. No big deal. He felt involved and now my toddler has a “job” when the phone rings.
Then, I called the phone and told him that he could answer it. I guided him through the process. First, you press the “talk” button. Then, you hold it up to your ear and say, “hello”. The big challenge here was keeping him from pressing any other buttons. This was a milestone in itself. I alternated a couple of times between letting him answer it and having him bring it to me.
Finally, I called the phone, told him he could answer it, and stepped into another room so that we could “talk”. It was great! My little boy is not a big talker, but he jabbered up a storm. We had a wonderful conversation. He got his phone fix and worked on his language skills at the same time.
Now, we do this fun activity whenever I want to get my toddler talking.
Yeah, but how do you teach a kid to not talk on the phone?