18 month olds development

i just want tips/advice on the best ways to help develop speech and overall development of my daughter. I am a young new parent who is completly new to this without a lot of help and want to help my child in any way possible. please anything would help. MY daughter constantly uses screaming and crying to try to get her way and i am becoming very stressed and overwhelmed

[AnnieBrooke]

Regarding the overwhelmingness -- 1) Join a church with a lot of young parents, and make friends with other young mommies.  2)  There is a world of support in "mommy and me" groups.  3)  See if you can trade off care with a friend so you can have a bit of a break.  The main thing not to do is park your child in front of the TV, it does not help their brain development at such a young age.  Good luck, I know it's tough.

[specialmom]

One easy thing you can do is to read to your daughter every single day.  She'll get more and more interested in the books.  Get a library card and go once a week like an outing.  It will encourage her desire to read and learn as well as promotes speech and vocabulary.  

Playing is a key part to a child's development as well.  Take her to parks and enjoy the physical things they have to offer.  This pushes her along in her gross motor development as well as calms the nervous system and helps with such things as social development as well.  Do activities with her in the upcoming months like scribbing on paper with a crayon.  As she gets older, she'll be more and more interested in that and this is fine motor development.  

Act interesed in the world, she will be.  If you go for a walk----------- talk to her the whole time.  Talk about the names of the flowers, the colors of them.  Smell them.  touch them.  Just keep the dialogue going.

Also for speech, work on muscle development.  Make funny faces to music and then turn the music off abruptly and "freeze" the face.  Stuff like that which is fun.

good luck and enjoy every minute of your child!

[Kellyn1604]

We incorporated baby signing time as a communication tool and found it to be really helpful. My first child actually had a delay we didn't know about until he was two and without the signing (he started at 11 months) he wouldn't have had any communication until 3. My second child is developing on track and is now 18 months. He also uses signs but tries to say the words at the same time. He can sign more, milk, bath, dog, water, airplane, car, cereal, all done, juice, please plus 30+ verbal words (non are perfect but they are specific and consistent)...etc. You just use the sign with the verbal word and eventually they catch on. It won't look perfect but something is better than nothing. My sister in law once blamed the sign language for my first son's delays when I repeatedly told her that studies show that kids taught sign language have twice the vocab. Now she has a 17 month old that throws things and screams while mine signs please and says thank you....how's that for karma? :) She is now teaching hers sign language and it's going great. Baby Signing Time is a dvd but you can just look up American Sign Language probably and find videos online to teach you the signs you think would help her most. Good Luck! Let me know if you try it and if it helps. The fact that you are interested and asking for advice lets me know you are a great mom and you and your daughter are going to be just fine.