Page 38 - Routines-Based Early Intervention Guidebook
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Routines-Based Early Intervention Guidebook
Teaching Two-Word Utterances 2.4
Most children start to combine words into two‐word u erances between 18 months
and 2 years of age. This is also about the me that children begin to understand rela onships
between objects and ac ons in their environments. They usually have approximately 50 words
in their repertoire when they start to combine words, and their word combina ons pull from
those words. It’s important that when we are encouraging the use of two‐word u erances,
we use words that your child already knows and is able to use.
What are Two‐Word U erances?
Plainly speaking, two‐word u erances are just that—two words together. However,
children begin to build two‐word u erances by combining two words that they already know
or by using one word that occurs very frequently in the child's environment (e.g. my, your, Hi,
Daddy…). Here are some examples of two‐word u erance targets:
1. Name + Request: mommy more
2. Possessive Pronoun + Object: my bo le
3. Ac on + Object: drink milk
4. Name + Gree ng: Hi Daddy
Taking inventory: What words does your child say?
O en, we believe that a child isn’t saying two words together but when we stop to take
inventory, we find a large variety of u erances. Get out a recorder or pencil and paper and
interact with the child. What we are looking for is a pa ern. For example. Does the child
always say, "Uuuh," pull on your arm, and say “milk?” Our job is to find that pa ern and then
use what the child is already doing to get a variety of u erances such as:
"Uuuh," pulls on your arm, and says “play”
"Uuuh," pulls on your arm, and says “cracker”
Remember, gestures such as pulling and poin ng are “words” for now. We will replace
them with words eventually but for now we just want our child to use more than one word.
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