Developing Your Baby's Language
Children can develop language skills only if they have many
opportunities to talk, listen and use language to solve problems
and learn about the world.
Long before your child enters school, you can do many things to
help her develop language. You can:
Give your child opportunities to play. Play is how children
learn. It is the natural way for them to explore, to become
creative, to learn to make up and tell stories and to develop
social skills. Play also helps children learn to solve
problems--for example, if her wagon tips over, a child must
figure out how to get it upright again. When they stack up
blocks, children learn about colors, numbers, geometry, shapes
and balance. Playing with others helps children learn how to
negotiate.
Support and guide your child as she learns a new activity.
Parents can help children learn how to do new things by
"scaffolding," or guiding their efforts. For example, as you and
your toddler put together a puzzle, you might point to a piece
and say, "I think this is the piece we need for this space. Why
don't you try it?" Then have the child pick up the piece and
place it correctly. As the child becomes more aware of how the
pieces fit into the puzzle, you can gradually withdraw your
support.
Talk to your child, beginning at birth. Your baby needs to hear
your voice. Voices from a television or radio can't take the
place of your voice, because they don't respond to your baby's
coos and babbles.
You child needs to know that when he makes a certain sound, for
example, "mamamamamama," that his mother will response--she will
smile and talk back to him. The more you talk to your baby, the
more he will learn and the more he will have to talk about as he
gets older.
Everyday activities provide opportunities to talk, sometimes in
detail, about what's happening around him. As you give your
child a bath, for example, you might say, "First let's stick the
plug in the drain. Now let's turn on the water. Do you want your
rubber duck? That's a good idea. Look, the duck is yellow, just
like the rubber duck we saw on 'Sesame Street.'"