What about dummies?
Parents often ask about dummies and when their child should stop using them.
When children are very young dummies can help to settle and soothe your child and encourage strong sucking patterns, however, after around 6 months of age it is advisable to keep dummy use only at night times.
Why should you stop dummy use?
By 12 months your child will be babbling and playing with speech sounds and then starting to use their first words. Using a dummy may reduce their opportunities to do this and develop these early skills. Also longer term and overuse of dummies (past the age of one) can cause changes with development of teeth as well as the way your child uses their mouth when talking. This can lead to problems with pronunciation of sounds.
When should you stop dummy use?
We would recommend to stop using a dummy by their first birthday – visit BBC Tiny Happy People for some useful advice: Dummies and Weaning: How and when to stop dummy use.
If your child is older have a look at our information leaflet – Get rid of that dummy!
Dribbling
Young children naturally dribble, or drool, but as the infant gets older it usually decreases. Daytime drooling stops within the first few years, although older children may still drool when sleeping.
Speech and Language Therapists do not work directly on saliva control.
Here are some tips which may help you and your child to manage their dribbling:
- Don’t wipe your child’s mouth – this makes more saliva. Pat or dab across the chin three times to encourage them to seal their lips. Let your child know you are going to dab, don’t take them by surprise.
- Encourage your child to pat their own mouth dry and praise them for this.
- Prompt your child to swallow their saliva.
- Teach the ideas of ‘wet’ and ‘dry’, and link this to their mouth and chin.
- If your child has a dummy, try to reduce use or get rid of it. For more information, see our section titled ‘What about dummies?’
Tongue Tie/Lip Tie
Coming soon…
Screen Time
There are lots of different screens that children access throughout the day from TVs through to phones, tablets and iPads. Children do enjoy screen time, however, children learn best when they are interacting and talking with those around them when playing, in conversations and talking during everyday activities such as eating dinner, in a pushchair or on the bus.
Most studies have found that screen time does not help with developing language. We know that too much screen time means they have less opportunity to develop skills such as listening, talking and playing and can in fact hinder them. A 2020 review of 42 studies found a connection between more time spent on screens and lower language skills. As well as the impact on language skills, screen time can also affect sleep patterns and concentration.
We know screen time can be very useful, and it’s unrealistic to expect that a child has no screen time. However, the key to successful screen time is moderation with the following tips
- Choose things you and your child can watch together and talk about what is happening
- Show interest in what your child is playing with on screen. Maybe you can join in and make it a more sociable, interactive activity.
- There are fun ways to use screens together such as looking at looking at photos as well as video calling family and friends
- Be a good example – try to limit your own use of phones and tablets. This makes you more available to interact with your child.
- Turn the TV off if no-one is watching. Young children find it hard to listen to adults whilst there is background noise.
- Parental controls can help to limit how much time your child access screens.
- Try to stick to daily time limits. No more than 2 hours per day. Balance screen time with quality family time such as talking at mealtimes rather than watching screens.
Tiny Happy People – Tips and advice for screen time with kids
