How to teach speech better

By 2nd birthday, they should say 50 words or they qualify for speech therapy through early intervention. They learn through play. Speak in 1 words. Focus on a certain group of words only everyday until they grasp those. I did a lot of repeating “up up up” “down down down” when playing with cars etc. Then after maybe a week of you saying that, start asking them “car go?” and they should say the direction. Give them more time than you think they’d need to respond. Sometimes it would be long pauses between the question and answer. Just stay still and wait. Don’t move onto next task. Same type of playing everyday.

We got referral for speech therapy at 18 months visit. He started that last year. He's a few months from three and very chatty.

I’m a speech-language pathologist and am happy to send you a couple of handouts I give to the families I work with some general speech and language suggestions. Agreed with the above comment that if you’re not hearing at least 50 different words by 24 months to get an assessment!
Just let me know your email in a private message if you want me to send those 😊

Reach out to your local Child Find! If they suspect that your little one needs speech/language therapy, they would do the evaluation at no cost to you. Early intervention is so impactful! (I used to work in ECE and received kiddos who were transitioning from the local toddler programs.)