How Can I Promote Language Development?

The best way to encourage your child s speech and language development is to do lots of talking and listening together. There is no need to have special tasks or extra time in the day to do this, it is always good to talk. This is why everyday activities like mealtimes, having a bath and even household chores, such as organising the washing, are perfect for developing your child s speech and language skills. By using everyday activities, you can talk about events and situations that are very familiar to your child and it enables them to practice the language skills that they have already learned and to build on these skills.Why not try these everyday activities?1. Sort things into categories while you re putting away the shopping, doing the laundry, tidying up, or even sorting the rubbish/recycling, practise grouping items into categories. This is a fantastic activity for developing your child s vocabulary. For example, when you re putting away the shopping sort all the vegetables, and then allof the meat. If that s too easy you can break things down into subcategories like fruits vs. vegetables . When you do the laundry, you could group clothes into tops and bottoms . Once your child is confident, they can group things together in different ways.2. Practise following instructions give your child simple instructions in chunks to help them - e.g. instructions with two parts (do x and then do y),- instructions containing before/after (after you do x, do y),It s a good idea to start off with very simple instructions, and remember that you might need to practise the same kind of instruction lots of times and show your child what you mean if they don t understand, so they will need close supervision. For tasks you know they can manage with less guidance, let them be the grown up and practise giving you instructions to tell you what to do make sure they are precise with their language.