Fostering Your Child’s Language
Talking to your baby during a feeding session will aid in her language development. When a baby is weaned off breast milk and introduced to solid foods, she begins to practice control of jaw, lips and tongue. Sucking, nibbling, chewing and swallowing are activities that lay the base for promoting language development in later life. You may begin by letting him know what he is eating, describing its taste in the process. An ear to new words, every time he enjoys the spilling and messing up will jump start his learning process. For e.g. uttering something like, ‘egg yolk is yellow in colour; ‘Myeisha is enjoying her sweet semolina porridge’; while you assist her take in the morsel.
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Turn bathing and nappy changing time into catching up with kiddie but meaningful talks. It could stem from the activities happening around or a piece of your imagination that fuels your baby’s brain Cells in the right manner. This should be coupled with gestures and expressions that intrigue the child or baby continually while conversing.
Encourage their participation in activities that can be fun and learning at the same time. Assisting you in simple household chores like dusting or cleaning up after completing a meal at the table. For e.g. calling your 5yrold daughter to get the kitchen cloth or put some utensils/dining plates at the kitchen sink.
Reading aloud a story book will also give your child an opportunity to get acquainted with new words and phrases. This would collectively nurture his ability to build up a rich vocabulary. Thereby making way for more complex sentences in his conversational skills, as his intellect matures. Let him have his say, even though it may not make complete sense and be difficult to comprehend. It would at least instill the confidence of putting his thoughts and views into words. For e.g. Asking your little one which dress would she like to wear today? Would she prefer some biscuits with milk or would like to munch her favourite- plain cornflakes? A small sequence of an event in a story can be accompanied with simple questions like- ‘do you know, what would happen next? Then you say and prod her gently to retell, when you catch up on a repeat of the same. Imitating animal sounds, singing children rhymes, jingles and songs in the early years of life also serves as a medium to learn new words.
Supplementing your child’s language development with some practical experiences is equally important. A visit to a zoo, aquarium and botanical gardens can give them a broad insight in to interpreting all what they may have learned in books or through your narrations.
It’s quite common to see young children being glued to television for most of their leisure time. But did you know that certain programmes could be well constructive to facilitate their learning process. Children particularly aged 2 to 5 yrs can benefit a lot from viewing programmes that offer interesting information on animals, nature and activities meant for children of their age. This especially when presented in the form of puppet show, including other kids of their age can keep them connected for a long period of time. Viewing such shows gives them an opportunity to understand the important links required in forming a sentence in a better manner. This works in for how to use accurate grammar, new letters and conjunctions in a sentence; by hearing to what is being instructed through these shows.
Guide To Language and Speech Development Skills in a Child | | Age | Speech Sound | | Birth to 3mths | Cooing with different vowels ( aa, oo) | | 6mths | Syllables with different sounds (mama, baba, dada) | | 9mths | Imitates different sounds. Utters different syllables at a stretch ( babadada) | | 12 mths | Apes animal sounds or of any object when repeatedly taught. | | 18 mths | Use of consonants at start of using any word – p,b,m,w,h | | 2 yrs | Use of almost all vowels and consonants p,b,m,w,n,h | | 2 ½ yrs | Along with use of consonants; may not be able to vocalize complete sound of a word. Chucks them in between or mispronounces. | | 3 yrs | Makes sounds of other letters like g,t,d,k,ng,f | | 4-6 yrs | Gets better with most sounds- s, r, v, z, ch, wh, sh, th |
*Reference:-www.choa.org |
Vocabulary
1 yr - few small words.
1.5 yr- 10 to 60 words.
2 yrs- 50 to 100 words; two word phrases; combining verbs and nouns.
2.5 yrs- 50 to 250 words; makes use of plural and ‘ing ‘at the end of some words.
3 yrs- three to four word sentences linked together with pronouns, tenses and questions.
4 yrs- 800 to 1,500 words; four to five word sentences; gets better with counting; answers promptly when asked a simple question.
Whenever having a conversation with your child, make sure your talking clubs in following aspects:- A comfortable ambience- snugging him closely while you speak, loud clear tone of voice, simple instructional commands, gestures that are encouraging, use of short and easy to understand sentences. Learn to have responsive attitude to your child’s say. Speaking slowly and pronouncing words accurately in the process helps him absorb new words more easily. Talking to your child in your native language also lets him embed a language, which he needs to familiarize with as he grows older.
If your child’s conversational skill does not seem to be progressing at a normal pace, then discuss those issues with a speech-language therapist. It’s quite likely that your child may be a slow learner as compared to others. So it may be coming of as a slow start to an entirely new process. Stuttering is another common issue of preschool children, which parents may worry about. But, it gradually withers away with time. Thus as your child grows older, most of his speech will become clearer and would be well understood by others. All what children need is a positive influence in and around their learning process from adults and caretakers. This boosts their social and language development to a great extent. |
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