Language Development

It's during the infant/toddler years children begin to develop language. This begins with coos and child mimicking a sound a parent makes and moves onto babbling. To help develop a toddlers language skills a parent should find constructive  and sensitive ways to encourage language. Also encouraging any attempt to say a word shows a child encouragement to use their words. For example, when my child was at this age and learning to talk I would give her the words she needed to express herself. For example, when she brought me a book to read I would say, "Read please. Say read please." Instead of her just nodding her head yes that that is what she wanted I would first have her attempt to say, "Read please," before I would read the book to her even it it just came out as a jumble of sounds.

A second way a parent can encourage language is to use a variety of language in conversation and in word games. For example I knew poems that had hand gestures that I would recite to my daughter or if I needed her to wait until I finished doing what I was doing before I helped her I would say "Let me finish cutting the carrot up and then I'll open that for you." Then I would say, "Help me," then I would have her attempt to say it before I helped her.

Use language for a variety of purposes such as to give directions, encourage, while changing a diaper etc. How you speak in each of these situations is different and helps a child develop language. For example, when I changed my child's diaper I would say something such as, "Lets take this one off, now I'm going to clean your bottom, and now lets put a fresh one on," and when I was done and picking her up I would say, "All done. All clean." I would read to my child and put age appropriate music on to listen to. Both reading and music develop language skills because books and songs repeat sounds and syllables.

The last thing a parent can do to develop language is to understand the child will make what appears to be mistakes. A child will call a blanket a ba ba or something else and this is okay. A child knows the real name of the object but is still learning. Encourage any attempt to say a word. Do not insist they get it right and particularly not the first time as this can lead to stuttering. Your child will get it and they understand far more than they are expressing. At this stage it it about the attempt and the development of words not a child being able to say words. It's about developing their vocabulary not being able to say a word correctly yet. Around age three is when a parent can start correcting the way a child says words and having them say them correctly.

For example, my daughter would call my mom gwama and not grandma because when she first learned how to say the word grandma the gr sound  and the 'd' sound were hard for her to pronounce. When she turned three I knew she could say the gr and 'd' sound and had developed her language skills enough that she could pronounce it correctly. So when she turned three I didn't let her call my mom gwama anymore I would look at her say say grand-ma. I would have her repeat it correctly three times and then leave her alone. For 2-3 weeks she said the word grandma phonetically and then I had her say the word putting it together say "grandma." I would have her say the word correctly three times then leave her alone. This helped her learn how to say the word grandma correctly and I did the same thing with other words she had a hard time pronouncing until she pronounced each word correctly.

Your child is learning and growing and each child will meet the goals of these stages as they develop and use you as the parent as the secure environment needed to meet the goals of each developmental milestone. Language development is learned in a different way and rate for each child. As a parent  encourage  your children to use their words and praise any effort to say a word.