Talking Matters!!!
Talking with our children is so very important. Kids actually need conversations to learn. In fact,they crave talking with others, especially adults! There are many, many strategies that parents and caregivers can use to enhance a child’s speech and language skill development. Here are three specific tips that anyone can use throughout everyday activities:
1. Follow the child’s lead.
If your little one seems interested in a particular picture in a book, keep talking about it. If they seem intrigued by a boat, show them more boats and talk about them, too. Repeat their babbles back to them, ask questions, and interact with them. You can even try recording your child on a tape recorder and playing it back.
2. Never criticize your child’s articulation or speech patterns.
Instead, repeat their statements back to them with the correct pronunciation or word usage. Give your child lots of praise for their efforts.
3. Expand or enhance the child’s utterance.
Rather than directing your child’s play and language by telling them what to play with and what to do, you will get the most bang for the buck, by expanding or enhancing the child’s utterance. For example, if the child is playing and says, “Wash baby!” The caregiver might say, "oh, the baby needs a bath!"
Hey John, I really liked your blog this week, I actually have done these things with my nieces and nephews. Especially correcting their English sometimes its cute the way they say something, so I will smile and then correctly re-say what they just said but in correctly. I love when my niece's ask me more about a specific category lately its been the Disney Princess, so we watch movies and read books around them. I'm pretty sure my niece Lilly can tell you the whole movie Frozen(with it being on mute). Thanks for sharing your letter with us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog Richelle! Just like you, I did a lot of this too with my nieces. I like how your nieces are interested in so many different categories of things. I know a woman in my program whose daughter actually plays the characters of Belle and Sleeping Beauty at Disneyland! I am sure your nieces would dig that!
DeleteJohn, I love your idea of your blog. I totally agree that talking to your children matter. I have learned from personal experience that talking really works. My parents spoke to us about everything and I think that we have better communication because of it. I was just curious as to what article or parent news letter you got it from? I think it would be awesome to read the full article
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog Brittany. This was from a monthly parent newsletter that was an assignment for another class that I am taking this semester. I had to collaborate with two other classmates, online, to create a newsletter to parents of children who receive speech therapy. We created it using Google Slides in a collaborative effort. Unfortunately, this excerpt is the full article on that subject, sorry it is so short!
DeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog/post! Sometimes parents don't understand how important it is to talk to their children. In this post you have provided parents with a foundation to be able to talk to their children and to do it in a constructive manner. Keep up the great work!