Language Development

In my years teaching preschool I referred many kids for speech therapy. I have learned some of the best practices to prevent speech problems or to help children who already have problems improve.

 

I'm awake, you can start talking now.

Why am I wearing this mommy?

From birth our kids have heard lot of talking. We narrate what we are doing, read books, and talk about everything around us. The more words a child hears the better their language development and there is a direct correlation to future school success. It is extremely boring talking to a mostly unresponsive baby. There's no flow of conversation and it's difficult to keep talking when there is nothing else to say. One trick is to narrate everything you are doing with as much detail as possible. Another is to pick a theme and spend an hour pointing out everything within that theme - colors, shapes, animals, foods, etc.

There's a lot to talk about in this room.

Ideally while you are speaking your child is in a position where they can see your mouth. They may choose not to look at it, but when they want to they should be able. It's also important to note that this exposure to spoken word is only beneficial in person. Hearing speaking on the tv, radio, etc doesn't help and in fact has been shown to have a negative effect.

We can see your mouth.

Changing the scenery helps to stimulate your ability to talk. Reading books will bring in a larger variety of words. I don't know what your life is like, but when I'm narrating what I'm doing the word "giraffe" very rarely comes up, yet when reading board books it's in a lot of them. It has even been proven that parents who can't read if given picture books will increase the number and variety of words their kids hear just by describing the pictures.

This blanket has a butterfly on it.

Another study I read was about using blocks to increase language development. By using open ended toys (nothing that lights up, plays music, or can only be used for one purpose) parents naturally increased their level of vocabulary, which in turn improved the child's language development. We have very few toys that play music and less than 5 that have batteries. Those 5 are the least played with toys we have.

Baby faces on the blanket

I mentioned earlier the negative effects of hearing words from a cd. If you sing along with music, children still get the benefit. So when you run out of things to say, turn up some music and sing along.

Why is Mama singing and dancing like a crazy woman?