Promoting your Children’s Language Development

Published: 20 Dec 2018 Tagged: childrencognitive developmentearly interventionexpressive languagelanguagelanguage developmentparentsreceptive languagesignsSLPSpeakablespeech language pathologistSpeech Pathologyspeech therapy

Being a parent is always an adventurous and uncertain journey with some challenges to face and learn. Every child is unique and presents different moods, food preferences, levels of bonding with the father or mother, and many other curious factors. However, some parenting experiences come with unexpected events which get parents worried when they happen, such as cognitive delays in the child’s early ages. Even with the fact that each child will show language development signs at different paces, parents can employ techniques which can both assist on the language and cognitive development but detecting possible concerning signs as well. Among the possibilities, here are the ten best ones to help promote your child’s language development:

1. Sing-a-Longs: music is always an exciting activity with children. Just play the child’s favourite songs or sing with the child at random moments, so memory and word identification will be exercised and soon the child will be singing along.
2. Identify Noises: in order to help the child understand how sounds relate to objects, motivate the child to identify everyday noises such as birds singing, car horns, doorbells and so on.
3. The Alphabet: songs about the alphabet, children’s books or games about alphabet puzzles will give the child resources to recur on memory when trying to read.
4. Counting: every countable object or event is an opportunity to help the child count numbers! You can count your own fingers, the number of toys on the ground, how many people are at sight, the number of steps to a certain place and so on.
5. Practice Shapes and Colours: it may seem just repetitive or silly, but it helps a child to have spatial intelligence by understanding since early the difference between squares and rectangles, or light from colours. In the future, the child’s descriptive skills will be sufficiently stimulated.
6. Simple Choices: when asking the child to choose between a white t-shirt or a blue t-shirt, or going to the park or to the pool, or even to have yoghurt or mangoes for breakfast, all these occasions help the child develop autonomy and to feel confident to speak his or her preferences and decisions.
7. Random Questions: while children usually have their “Why?” periods, parents can refine it by asking questions themselves to the child in order to help the child formulate structured answers and give a position about the question.
8. Place Experiences: interesting, unusual or unexpected places to be visited by the child are extremely helpful for showing to the child that the world is not confined by the everyday places and matters. Museums, a farmer’s market (or even a farm) and natural outdoor walks can provide unforgettable learning experiences and emotional bonding moments between parents and children.
9. Playable Everyday Things: when exploring the effects of a mirror, water, shadows or reimagining household objects as amazing things (such as transforming kitchen tools into Indiana Jones archaeology tools, or couches and bedsheets into tents), the low cost will be easily felt by parents, while the learning and fun factors will be just as noticed as if with other bought toys and items.
10. Games Galore: the more different games the parents offer and play with the child, the more opportunities they will have to observe the child’s performance and detect if there’s any detail to be further approached. Another important fact is that these games (which can be as simple as peek-a-boo, going through hide-and-seek until complex board games) offer an opportunity to create stronger bonds as well as help the child know himself/herself regarding games preferences.