Hey there parenthood pals and welcome to this episode of Building Blocks for Tiny Tots. On this episode we are going to explore the importance of language development. I can remember taking my daughter to her 1 year checkup. The office staff gets you signed in and then they hand you THE checklist. You know the checklist I’m talking about. That dreaded one that asks you all of these questions that will help the doctor know whether your child is developing appropriately or not. Now, most of the checklist is fairly simple although if I’m being honest there is always a section on language development. And now if I’m being super honest my daughter always had me worried and still has me concerned about her development. I mean I think that’s all parents out there. We’re always worried about our kid’s development. But, this time this checklist was a little harder to fill out. Does your child say 20-50 words? Well, I didn’t know an exact number, I guess I should have been writing them down. I quickly thought of all the words that she said and counted 10. Are you kidding me? All I could think of was 10! But now looking back I could clearly see that I was overthinking and stressing about nothing. However, that day made me take her language development super seriously. I started taking note of the words she could say, whether people could understand her and so on. I also decided to look for ways to help her continue on her journey which leads me to this podcast episode. I am going to share with you three ways I helped increase and continue to develop my daughter’s language skills.
First up is to talk to them. Now, I know what you’re thinking everyone says to talk to your child. However, I want you to talk to them all the time. Getting a cup of coffee, great! Tell your child about it. Warming it up in the microwave for the millionth time because that’s #parenthood, mention it to your child. Also it is important to note your voice tone when you are speaking to your child. Children tend to respond better to high pitched excitable or happy voices such as, Did you have a good nap? Now I don’t want you to think you always have to talk like that. It is also important to show emotion. Children need experiences with emotion and reassurance that it is okay to be themselves. So if your happy, sad, mad, tell your child why. “Mommy is happy because she got a big project finished at work.” That way your child will connect what makes someone happy to a happy event and so on. Along with talking to your child comes vocabulary development. In my last example, I used the word project and you might have thought, I could use that word but my child won’t know what I’m talking about. That is when I would follow it with a question. Do you know what a project is? Even if your child is not speaking yet it is important to expose them to various types of language. I would then answer my own question, A project is a very important thing that helps other mommies and daddies. You might feel a little crazy at first especially when you are talking out loud in a crowed place like at the grocery store, mall, or movie theater wherever but I promise you this will make a world of difference in your child’s language development.
Number 2! The next step is to read to your child. I know, I know, I know. You’ve heard this before but bear with me. I love reading to my daughter. At first she wasn’t that into it, she would pick out a book, hand it to me, and would crawl up onto my lap. I would start to read the book and maybe finish 1 to maybe 3 pages and she would crawl right back off and go to something more interesting. Initially I would just stop reading, put the book back, and go play with whatever toy caught her interest. However, when talking to one of my coworkers, she said that I should still read the story even though she may not be paying attention. So I tried it. Slowly but surely, she came back to the book. She actually started to have an interest in more books. I truly feel that this step helped her find a love of books.
Now, when reading to your child especially at an early age, it is very important to put emotion into reading. If you think about yourself if you are listening to a presenter are you going to want to spend an hour with somebody who talks like the grownups from Charlie Brown or someone who is lively, animated, and truly passionate about their topic. Personally, I think most people would pick the second option because I know I would. Now think about your child, do you catch what I’m putting down. At a very young age, reading should be enjoyable and exciting because it will help them in the long run. Eventually, through daily reading exposure, your child will pick up the language used in the books, relate the words to the pictures, and in order to increase their vocabulary eventually they will start developing more language.
The last tip I have is to play and interact with your child. My daughter loves doll houses, Bubble Guppies, drawing, puzzles, her play kitchen, and running around outside and jumping in puddles. I use those activities to interweave playtime with language development. For example, the doll house is an easy way to develop your child’s language. While playing you could talk about the different rooms in the house, the actions that you do in each room for example turning the TV on, turning the lights on, flushing the toilet. I like to describe the characters we are playing with like look at the dress momma has on or what color tie does daddy have on. Simple questions or statements can help children understand the world around them. Even enjoying a TV show with your little one can provide language development. My favorite way is to ask about the characters like the color of the characters hair, shirt, eyes, so on. This is also a perfect time to chat about emotions and feelings I start out with simple questions when my daughter was littler like How is she feeling? Then as she got older I started to get her to expand on the topic with questions like why is she feeling that way or what would make him feel better. Playing with puzzles in another great activity because it can start developing the skill of not only language but also inferencing. While playing with a puzzle, see if your child can guess what it will be when it is finished. Puzzles are also great for teaching placement language for where the puzzle pieces go.
Language development is one of the five important areas of child development. The most important piece of advice I can give is if you want your child to talk to you then you need to talk to them. You may feel silly at first because I know I did, but I can promise you it will all be worth it once you hear your child putting sentence together and being able to answer the question you ask them with a full sentence. These tips are not intended to be quick fixes just tips from a teacher momma to you. The important takeaways from this episode are language development will happen when there is language in the environment. Language development requires constant communication and meaningful conversation. I know what you’re thinking, my little one is only 6 months old. But starting early especially with language will help tremendously. Language activities do not have to take hours in fact I feel that kids get the most from the least amount of effort and preparation. The best learning happens in true, authentic environments. Be sure to check out our Facebook page, Building Blocks for Tiny Tots Podcast and leave your favorite language activities in the comments. Talk to those babies and I’ll see you on the next episode.
