PA R E N T I N G
The A-B-C of baby talk
I
n a newly released paediatrician's handbook, a speech
and hearing therapist lists some simple methods that
parents can adopt to help better develop their child's
verbal and language skills. A language-enriched home
environment is crucial to a child's development. Research has shown that children with strong verbal and
language skills develop strong reading and writing skills.
Parents are their children's first teachers and are fundamental contributors to their child's success in learning a
language. Building communication into your child's everyday life should not be hard work or stressful for you or
your child. It can become a natural part of the time you
spend together.
Strategies to promote language and communication
Be face-to-face
When talking to children it's important to be close, and
face-to-face, so that they can read your facial expressions, watch your mouth and hear your voice clearly.
Being face-to-face also ensures that the child is maintaining interest in what you are saying. If your child is
communicating, make sure you show you're listening by
body language such as head nods or comments such as
'Hmm' or 'Really'?
Talk slowly, clearly, simply
Using new words is important but sometimes using too
many new words is confusing to a child. It's important to
use vocabulary that's appropriate to a child's age and
level of understanding and use. There is no formula to
know what words you can use for what age - but as an
overarching principle it's important to remember to keep
things simple but never use baby talk.
Talk about everything that you are doing or he/she
is doing
Talking to your child during daily routines such as changing diapers, putting on clothes, and feeding, exposes
children to language in general. It involves them in learning conversational skills and helps children acquire and
use appropriate vocabulary.
Expand and respond to communication attempts
To encourage communication, give your child the opportunity to start the interaction and respond immediately
with interest. Respond to every coo, gurgle, sound or
word that a child makes.Responses can be in the form
of imitating the child, answering the question or making
a different sound. Try to expand the child's utterance as
well by adding more context to the language. For example, if the child says, 'Ball', you can say 'Here's the
ball ... big ball.'
Tell stories, read books and sing songs
Use books that have big colourful pictures.
Storytelling doesn't have to follow the written
words in the book. Depending on the child's
attention level, the story can be just 2-3 sentences. Storytelling can involve the child by
pausing and asking, `What happened next?'
Songs should involve a lot of actions and gestures so even if a child is not yet talking, they
can participate by making the actions. You can
even pause at the sound words of a song to
let a child participate.Speech and Language
257 E.g. 'Old MacDonald had a farm, and on
that farm he had some cows...' and then wait
for your child to respond 'Moo moo.'
Avoid demand speech
Take the focus off getting your child to talk.
Avoid words such as `Say', and phrases such
as `Tell daddy where you went today'. Limit close ended
questions that force a child to one-two word answers. Instead phrase questions such as 'Tell me about...'. Avoid
making your child recite a nursery rhyme, the alphabet
or numbers especially in front of another adult.
More than one language
Research has shown that exposing a child to multiple
languages from birth increases their ability to be multilingual and improves their ability to interpret and tell stories. Biand multi lingual children as young as 7 months
can better adjust to environmental changes as com
pared to mono-lingual children. However, decide which
family member speaks what language and stick to it.
Your child should know which language to expect when
he she is communicating with a per son. If your child
hears the same person switch back and forth between
two different languages, it will be confusing or himher
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