6 Simple Ways to Increase Your Children’s Language Skills at Home
The best way to encourage your child’s language development is to begin speaking to them from birth. Learning to speak is an essential milestone for any child, and developing their vocabulary is crucial in helping them express their emotions and needs, while building their social confidence down the line.
1- Make sure to always speak clearly and enunciate your words, while never criticizing your children’s speech.
Children benefit from more complex speech and language input as they progress in their development. While using high pitch speaking, also known as motherese, can help grasp their attention, baby talk that dumbs down speech and language can slow this development. Researchers recommend that you speak to your children using proper grammar and real words, at slower speeds with babies and toddlers, and normal speed with older children. Enunciating your words will make a difference in the quality of the words that your children will speak, and will help them understand you better.
Criticizing your children’s speech negatively impacts them. Instead of criticizing, repeat the sentence back to them in the correct way and praise them for their efforts.
2. Narrate your day
Narrating your day by explaining what you are doing, telling them what is going on around them, and outlining the plans for the day can help expose your children to more vocabulary during the day. It also helps them learn information directly that is often expected to be absorbed passively, and it helps them understand how to use language for thinking. This will make a big impact on their language development.
3. Read to your children
Reading out loud to your children provides vocabulary that they may not hear often, while also developing their passion for books. You can start with board books for babies and as they get older, move on to picture books and longer stories.
4. Sing songs together
Singing songs with your children about different topics can help expand their vocabulary, as the repetition and rhyme of the lyrics will solidify the words in their minds. Children learn about the world around them when they watch and listen to animated rhymes.
5. Follow their lead
If your children are interested in particular topics such as a certain animal, musical instrument, or science, take more time to foster their love for that topic and expose them to various content about it. This will keep their attention while also expanding their vocabulary.
6. Play repetition games
Repetition is the best way to ingrain vocabulary in children’s minds. You can do this by using flashcards, playing with toys, hiding them, and making them reappear while vocalizing the name of the toy or color, etc.
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