Big voice, tiny voice

2–3 years · Language · 6 minutes

What you need

How to do it

Pick a short phrase your child likes — 'here we go' works well.

Say it in a giant voice, then in a tiny mouse voice, then a slow deep voice. Exaggerate hard; the contrast is the point.

Invite them to copy each one. Then let them pick the voice and you copy. End on the tiny voice — it settles the room instead of winding it up.

Why it works

Playing with volume, pitch and speed builds prosody — the musical layer of speech that carries meaning and emotion. Children who control prosody are easier to understand long before their articulation is fully accurate.