Animal Sounds! For Speech and Language

Animal sounds are great practice for all toddlers who are just acquiring speech (around age 1-2). A cow says moo, a cat says meow, etc., are statements you can practice with your child all day long - either in songs (old MacDonald), or with any farm - themed books, or with a play barn.

But why are animal sounds such a great choice of targets?

Well, first, they improve foundations for vocabulary. Working on animal sounds teaches word association at an early age. "Horse" goes with "neigh" and "dog" goes with "woof." And all of these words can also be categorized (another vocab skill).

And second - perhaps even more important- these words are easy to say. Words like "moo moo" or "baa baa" have a "word shape" known as "reduplicated CVCV". That is, consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel - repeated. This is the same word shape seen in "mama" or "dada" or "papa" or "nana." And this is one of the easiest word shapes to say, especially when speech is first being acquired. This word shape is also the first one targeted by SLPs when a more serious speech sound issue, like Childhood Apraxia of Speech, may be present.

And finally - animal sounds are just plain fun! It's hard to say them in a straight, serious manner. So they automatically encouraging playing, talking, singing, and more.

Meanwhile - also check out the "reduplicated CVCV" "read dot and say" worksheet on Smarter Speech SLP's Teachers Pay Teachers Store. This worksheet is unique because there is a story (read) but there are also dots to point at or color (dot) while you or your child or both say the sounds.

Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.