When you worry your child is late to talk

If your child seems slower to talk than other children their age, the first step is to have it checked. This article is not a diagnosis or a treatment: see a paediatrician or a speech-language therapist, and if you live in Korea, the national infant health check includes the K-DST developmental screening. Alongside that check, this article sets out research-based ways to talk at home: wait, name and expand.

If you are worried, get it checked first

If you sense your child's talking is late, checking comes before waiting. Korea's national health check for infants and young children includes a developmental screening test (K-DST), and you can talk to a paediatrician straight away. For a closer look, see a speech-language therapist. This article does not replace that check; it covers conversation at home alongside it.

We have deliberately left out milestone charts of the "so many words by so many months" kind. Children vary widely, and judging on your own from a chart can easily point you to the wrong kind of reassurance or the wrong kind of worry. We leave the timing and content of checks to the National Health Insurance Service's guidance on the infant health check and to your paediatrician, and only describe what you can do at home while you wait for that check.

One thing to say first. A child who talks late is not a sign that a parent did something wrong. The studies below are not there to judge parents. They show what kind of conversation makes a good environment for a child.

What research says: conversation matters more than words heard

Research has found again and again that back-and-forth conversation matters more than how many words a child hears. In a study that followed 41 babies learning Korean to four and a half, turn-taking with their mothers around the first birthday was linked to vocabulary at 54 months.¹ Even accounting for words heard, turn-taking and vocabulary growth lifted each other.²

The Korean study followed 41 mother–infant pairs from 14–20 months to about 54 months. How often they took conversational turns predicted not only vocabulary at the same age but also differences in vocabulary at four and a half, and turns started by the mother had a particularly large long-term effect.¹ A study that recorded 122 babies aged 9–24 months for a whole day every three months found that turn-taking and vocabulary were linked in both directions, whatever the number of words the babies heard.²

There is longer follow-up too. A study that recorded the home sounds of 146 babies aged 2–36 months and tested them again at 9–14 years found that the amount of conversation with adults at 18–24 months was linked to language and cognitive scores ten years later.³ In a study of 275 US families, adding adult–child conversation to the analysis made the negative association with TV viewing disappear, and the researchers urged parents not only to talk to their children but to have conversations in which both sides speak.⁴ Another study found that the quality of communication at 24 months predicted a child's expressive language a year later far better than how much the mother talked.⁵ These are all observational studies, so "linked" is as far as they go.

When parents talk more with their child, things can change

Parents can increase back-and-forth talk, and the increase mattered. In an experiment that randomly assigned 71 families with six-month-old babies, coached parents used more "parentese" and more turn-taking, and the more it rose, the further ahead their children's language was at 18 months.⁶ In an experiment with 52 families of 4- to 6-year-olds, language scores rose where conversation grew.⁷

Both experiments involved children in general, not programmes for late talkers. So they should not be read as "talk more at home and a late talker will catch up". What they show is that turn-taking is a habit parents can learn and increase, and that the extra turn-taking moved together with children's language. It means the most when it goes hand in hand with professional advice.

Five things to try today

There are five things you can do today with nothing to prepare: follow your child's gaze, put words to the sounds and gestures they send you, hand over the turn and wait five seconds, give back what they say expanded by one word, and read books by asking and waiting. Together they put Harvard's "serve and return" into everyday words.⁸

1. Follow your child's gaze. Look at what your child is looking at right now, and talk about that. What your child is already interested in comes before a topic an adult picks.
2. Put words to it. When your child points and says "Oh!", say "A bus! A yellow bus." You are catching the signal your child sent and giving it back in words.
3. Hand over the turn and wait five seconds. After you ask or say something, count to five in your head. If a sound, a look or a gesture comes back instead of words, take it as an answer.
4. Give it back one word bigger. When your child says "Woof!", say "The doggy is running." This is building on what they said, not correcting it.
5. Read books by asking and waiting. More on this just below.

All five work best short and often. You do not need to run them like a lesson all day. One or two exchanges at mealtime, at bath time or while putting on shoes are plenty.

Turning book reading into conversation

Dialogic reading (asking questions, expanding on your child's answers and praising as you read) increased the words children used more than simply reading aloud. In an analysis of 16 studies, the effect was large for two- and three-year-olds and smaller for four- and five-year-olds and children at risk of language difficulties.⁹ So it does not replace professional advice either.

Dialogic reading began with an experiment that randomly assigned about 30 children aged 21–35 months. After parents spent a month asking, expanding and praising as they read, the children's expressive language was ahead of the comparison group.¹⁰ The U.S. Department of Education's research review body has also rated dialogic reading as having positive effects on young children's speaking and listening.¹¹

The method is simple. Point to a picture, ask "What's this?" and wait. If your child says "Apple", expand it: "That's right, a red apple." Then connect it to their own life: "Where have we seen apples?" One question per page is plenty, and if your child does not answer, answer it yourself and turn the page.

Screen time can cut into talk time

A study recording 220 Australian families from 12 to 36 months found that more screen time went with fewer adult words, fewer child vocalisations and fewer back-and-forth exchanges.¹² This does not mean screens stop children talking; while a screen is on, there may simply be less room for turn-taking. The more you worry, the more that room is worth protecting.

The study recorded the sounds of each home for 16 hours a day, every six months, and at 36 months each minute of screen time went with 6.6 fewer adult words, 4.9 fewer child vocalisations and 1.1 fewer conversational turns.¹² There are two things you can do at home: turn the TV off when nobody is watching, and when you do watch, watch together, pause and ask. The Korean Pediatric Society advises avoiding digital media until two and then watching together for under an hour a day, and the World Health Organization recommends that during sitting time, children read and talk with an adult.¹³

When to stop waiting and get advice

The moment you start to worry is the time to ask. Rather than putting it off with "let's wait a little longer", go to a paediatrician and ask without waiting for the next health check. They can refer you to a speech-language therapist if needed. Checking early does no harm to your child or to a worried parent.

We have deliberately not written a list of "see someone if you notice these signs". That judgement belongs to the guidance and checks of the health professionals who see your child in person. Even if people around you say "some children just start talking late", if the worry does not go away, take that worry with you. Hearing that everything is fine after a check is worth a lot too.

How Bebe fits in

Bebe is not a therapy tool. If you are worried about late talking, talk to a paediatrician or a speech-language therapist first. What Bebe does is listen to your child, wait, and make books and songs from the things your child loves, so there is more to talk about. The studies above looked at conversation with people.

So Bebe does not replace conversation with parents; it adds one more thing to talk about alongside it. We do not keep recordings of your child's voice, and for babies under two we only suggest using it with a caregiver holding the screen, reading and playing together. About Alphabebe

Sources

1. Mun J, Choi Y. 2025, Korean Journal of Developmental Psychology 38(2):1–18 (in Korean). DOI 10.35574/KJDP.2025.6.38.2.1
2. Donnelly S, Kidd E. 2021, Child Development 92(2):609–625. DOI 10.1111/cdev.13511
3. Gilkerson J, Richards JA, Warren SF, Oller DK, Russo R, Vohr B. 2018, Pediatrics 142(4):e20174276. DOI 10.1542/peds.2017-4276 (LENA Foundation study)
4. Zimmerman FJ, Gilkerson J, Richards JA, Christakis DA et al. 2009, Pediatrics 124(1):342–349. DOI 10.1542/peds.2008-2267
5. Hirsh-Pasek K, Adamson LB, Bakeman R, Owen MT, Golinkoff RM, Pace A, Yust PK, Suma K. 2015, Psychological Science 26(7):1071–1083. DOI 10.1177/0956797615581493
6. Ferjan Ramírez N, Lytle SR, Kuhl PK. 2020, PNAS 117(7):3484–3491. DOI 10.1073/pnas.1921653117
7. Romeo RR, Leonard JA, Grotzinger HM et al., Gabrieli JDE. 2021, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 49:100967. DOI 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100967
8. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. “Serve and Return” · “5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return.” developingchild.harvard.edu
9. Mol SE, Bus AG, de Jong MT, Smeets DJH. 2008, Early Education and Development 19(1):7–26. DOI 10.1080/10409280701838603
10. Whitehurst GJ, Falco FL, Lonigan CJ, Fischel JE, DeBaryshe BD, Valdez-Menchaca MC, Caulfield M. 1988, Developmental Psychology 24(4):552–559. DOI 10.1037/0012-1649.24.4.552
11. What Works Clearinghouse (Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education). “Dialogic Reading” evidence snapshot. ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/EvidenceSnapshot/135
12. Brushe ME, Haag DG, Melhuish EC, Reilly S, Gregory T. 2024, JAMA Pediatrics 178(4):369–375. DOI 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.6790
13. Korean Pediatric Society, recommendations on digital media use for infants and young children (in Korean) · World Health Organization. “To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more.” 2019-04-24, who.int

This article is not a diagnosis or a treatment. If you are worried, talk to your paediatrician.