These
are things you can do to help your child improve their language skills:
1.
Expand
on what your child says. Children learn
language from hearing what others say.
If the child says “I see a dog.”, you expand on what they say by saying “I
see a big, brown dog.”
2. Extend what your child
says. Children learn to use complex
structure and vocabulary when they hear you use complex language. If your child says, “I see a dog.”, You can
say, “I see a dog running through the park.”
3. Encourage conversational
language by talking to your child about things you do and they do during the
day. Ask specific questions that will
get more than a one-word or yes/no answer.
Start with phrases such as “tell me about…” or “how do you feel
about…” to get kids to talk more. “Tell me about what you did in math class
today” will usually provide more conversation than “did you have a good day at
school”
4. Let your child help you
with cooking, chores, and daily activities around the house. Cooking can provide a lot of opportunities
for vocabulary development (just think about all of the foods, tools, and
appliances you use to cook…this provides a wealth of objects to describe,
compare, taste, and experience). Talk to
them about how each object is used, what its made from, what category it
belongs to, and so on.
5. Use daily errands such as
going to the store, post office, restaurant and park as opportunities for
developing language. Each place has its
own routine, people to know, objects that are used. Talk about the items you buy in the store,
how you mail a letter, ordering from a menu and so on…
6. The more an adult
interacts verbally with a child, the more they will hear and incorporate
complex vocabulary and grammar into their daily lives. So provide lots of play opportunities and
time talking with peers and adults.
Limit exposure to television. This is not to say that t.v. doesn’t have
its entertainment value; however, it has been proven that children don’t
develop oral language skills by watching television; they develop language
skills by talking with others.
7. Provide lots of
opportunities for the child to hear language.
My favorite activity is the good ol’ bedtime story. For younger children, picture books with a
repetitive phrase (such as Brown Bear, Brown
Bear or Jump Frog Jump) are great
for the bedtime story. Chapter books
for older children (
8. Play memory/concentration
types of games
9. Play “I spy” and look for
items that belong in a certain group or category
10.As you read stories, ask questions, ask the child to summarize
the story, or re-tell the story. Have
your child describe the pictures in the story.
11. Look through old photo
albums. Ask your child to recall peoples
names, events associated with the photographs.
