Things You Can Do To Encourage Speech and Language Development

There are several activities parents can do with their children to encourage speech and language development. However, activities you do should be age appropriate in order to support and work hand-in-hand with their cognitive development. Below are activities that are useful to be practiced with your children:

Birth - 2 years

1. Encourage your child to make vowel like sounds such as "ma", "da", "pa" - you can do this by identifying yourself "mama" and "baba" or "daddy" referring to your spouse. This helps form the basic of speech.
2. Talk to your baby at every chance you get. While bathing, feeding, playing just about anything. Describe the things you are using and doing. Example: "Let's eat", "Baby is eating porridge", "Spoon", "I am taking you out for a drive", "We are going to the car".
3. Count things. For instance, as you bring you baby down the steps, count the steps.
4. Gather some household objects and say the name of those objects to your baby.
5. Teach them colors. Point at objects of a certain color and say the name of that color.
6. Acknowledge your baby's effort to communicate. Respond. Use facial expressions and different tone of voice.
7. Read aloud. Reading is one of the best ways for children to begin gathering vocabulary. Choose simple board books or those fabric/plastic books that can be read while in the tub. You can describe about what is happening on each page of the book and point to the objects or characters in the book.

2 - 4 years

1. Speak clearly to your child. Try avoiding baby talk.
2. Acknowledge what they are saying even if you find it hard to understand. Repeat the words "biscuits, you want biscuit?" Never brush them off saying you don't understand. This creates frustration and hinders their effort. If you are still unable to understand them after repeating and trying to figure out, get them to show you the things they want and say the name of that object clearly to them and it that is what they were referring to, get them to repeat the word.
3. A fun activity of making a scrapbook of items. Cut pictures of objects, put them in groups and get your child to paste in the scrapbook, write the names of those objects and teach the names to your child.
4. When you want to offer something, give your child choices. For example,  "Do you want juice or water?" "Do you want to wear a dress or t-shirt with leggings?"
5. Encourage extension of speech by talking about things around you, objects and its usage, places and its purpose, description of places, food and its taste. Example, "Here is a ball. I kick and bounce the ball." "This is a supermarket, we buy things we need from the supermarket"
6. Talk about pictures from a book or from your own collection of photos. Choose a picture and talk about what is seen in the picture or you can even encourage them to create stories from the picture.


4 - 6 years

1. Give full attention to your child when she/he speaks. This is important to show them that you are interested in what they are saying and it helps develop confidence.
2. Show your appreciation and acknowledge every attempt your child makes to speak. Avoid saying "I don't know what you are saying"
3. Its now time to build up on vocabulary. Introduce new words as you speak and provide definition of the word, and make them repeat the word after you.
4. You may also begin teaching spatial concept  to show direction, space, opposites.
5. Expand speech by having conversations with your child. Ask them about their day in the school. At times, some children do not respond to questions like "what did you learn today?" instead of this ask or say "tell me the coolest thing you did in school today". When your children watch their favorite tv show, get them to share what happened in that series with you. This not only builds vocabulary, but it strengthens memory as well. Alternatively, you can also ask them how would their version of the story be. This doubles up as creativity builder too!
6. Teach them process and giving direction. Explain step by step of the things you are doing. For example if you are making their favorite chocolate drink, invite them to join you. Describe each step and get them to repeat the steps after you are done. For example: No 1, you put some chocolate in the cup, No. 2 Add milk and so on.
7. Sit with them when they are playing or doing some crafts, get them to describe what they are doing to you.

There you have a list of things you can do with you children. Have a good time exploring the methods and have a jolly time with your little ones!