Did you know that early language and communication skills are crucial for your child’s success later in life? The interactions a child has with their parent influences how they develop and learn.
- Talk to your child and use real words. This helps expand their vocabulary.Talk about everything you are doing. Repetition is key! “Good Morning it’s time to get up.” “Hi it’s mommy.” “It’s time to get dress.” “What should we wear today?”- You may feel like you are talking to yourself. Your child is absorbing everything you say.
- Work on conversational turn taking even if your child is not using words yet. Respond to their vocalizations and gestures (nonverbal communication).
- Read books and talk about what you see in the pictures. Repetitive books are amazing for language development (ie. Brown Bear Brown Bear, Five Little Monkeys)- Here is a list of books by age.
- Singing songs promotes language development, auditory discrimination, phonological awareness, vocabulary development, and auditory memory. Sing whenever and wherever you are. (ie in the bathtub, while brushing teeth, swinging)
- Pat a cake and peek a boo to help teach words and body movements.
- Expand upon their words. When your child says “Ball” say “Big ball. Here comes the ball.”
- Teach your baby sign language. Signs help your child communicate even before they have the words to do so.
- Teach sounds such as animal (moo, ba ba, peep peep), people (achoo, shh, snoring sound), vehicle (Vroom, honk honk, beep beep, choo choo), and exclamation words (Oh, Ouch, Whee, Uh Oh).
REPEAT! REPEAT! REPEAT!
Further explanations and examples to come in future post:)
