Give Your Child Your Undivided Attention And Listen

Your child’s language advancement will flourish on two-way communication.  Generally, adults tend to talk at children, not with children.  You can advocate real communication by exposing your child to language every day, such as when you are asking your child about her likes and dislikes. Engage her in conversations about what you see around you.  Take a walk somewhere.  Then, stop at a spot and just look at the surroundings and listen.  What do you hear?  What do you smell?  What do you see?  Use your five senses to observe the environment.  Maybe your child will see a tiny insect and questions will spring around the insect.  A few minutes later your child may look at the clouds in the sky and want to know why they are white.  As you are looking up at the clouds she may see different shapes in the clouds that remind her of different things such as her dog.  Next thing you know the conversation is centered around her favorite pet.  Conversations should remain natural as you follow the lead and interests of your child. 

Your child knows what she wants and how she will get it! When communicating with your child support her and make her ask questions.  As her cognitive and linguistic ability increases she can now formulate questions.  Some questions may be for clarification such as “What does absent mean?” Or a question may be one of wonderment such as “Why is the sky blue?” Your child may generally ask a question about what (What is that red thing over there?”) a question about who (Who is that?). When you answer questions for your child you are promoting language.  Be sure to be at your child’s level when communicating with her. Give her your full and undivided attention as well as make eye contact with her.  Listen to your child’s words and respond meaningfully so she feels important.

You should also begin to notice that your child is able to engage her thoughts using the words and, or, but or because when she is speaking.  You can facilitate further development of these conjunctions by encouraging her to extend her thinking.  At lunchtime when she says “I want to eat yogurt,” you can say “You want yogurt and …” as your extend her thought.  Model the use of conjunctions when you talk with her.  Every time that you speak with your child she is learning new words and having opportunities to share her thoughts. 

Though tools and props are not necessarily needed for language development they can enrich your child’s experience.  Children respond well to dolls, puppet and stuffed animals as they bring them to life by including them in their conversations.  Your child may love to play with toy telephones as she engages in dramatic play experiences pretending she is a pizza restaurant, works as an office girl, or just talking with friends and relatives!  The possibilities for play are endless.  Savor each moment with your child as you give her your undivided attention and enjoy play time with her.  Conversations will occur naturally when you follow her lead and scaffold her play.