Building a language rich environment is, on the face of it, an easy thing to do. Unfortunately, in today's busy households and with the busy lifestyles of parents who have to work full-time, it is harder to find the time to spend with your children than many of us realize. However, there are many activities that you can use on a daily basis to teach language in daily situations, enhance your child's speech and language improvement and originate a good environment for learning.
Make time for your children!
Children learn speech and language through listening, watching, exploring, copying, initiating, responding, playing and interacting with others. For those first few years most of the foremost interaction is going to be in the middle of the child and their parents, carers and maybe siblings. Finding time to spend with your children and have a shared focus is very foremost if you want to help them to establish their speech, language and group skills. One-to-one time will advantage your child in the long term.
Speech Pathology Programs
You are doing your child a disservice if you have spare time, but put them in front of the Tv. There are a few (and only a few!) children's Tv programs that are in any way educational. Your child is more likely to learn about things from one-to-one playtime with his parent or carer. Tv and video games are passive entertainment and do not encourage any interaction. Studies now show that children who watch too much Tv in their early years are more likely to have difficulties with attention and listening when they reach school age.
There is also evidence to show that if the child uses a dummy/pacifier their speech can be delayed. Speech can be delayed because the child is not speaking, and because the improvement of the child's oral musculature may be affected by the constant sucking of a dummy.
Building an environment that helps your child's language develop:
Building a language rich environment is about using every occasion to use language, to interact, to share a focus, to talk, to take turns. Building a language rich environment is also about Building a nurturing environment, giving your child love and affection and Building their self-confidence. And finally, it is about Building a learning environment, creating a place where love, language and learning can all take place together.
So what do you do to originate this environment? Well firstly look at yourself and how you are communicating:
Think about your child's language level:
One of the biggest things to be aware of when using language colse to your young child is the level and complexity of the language you use. Think about their age and how much language they use. A young child will ordinarily understand more words than he uses in speech. You can use a milestones charts to get a broad idea of your child's language level. Assuming your child is developing along normal lines think about where to pitch you language. For instance, if your child is aged 2 years and 6 months and is able to result a short instruction containing 2 key words, be mindful of this when you talk to her. If you use long sentences she will not understand you. If your child does have mystery understanding, just use key words, more intonation, and gesture, or point as you say the words.
When talking to your child, try to talk about things that are in context or that the child can see, so they can use these things as a reference. Talk gently and put emphasis on the key words if they are in a sentence, and use lots of intonation to help emphasize meaning. Give the child more time to riposte than you would with older children or an adult. Younger children may need a minuscule longer to process your speech and formulate an riposte of their own. This is even more foremost if your child has difficulties acquiring language. If your child has language difficulties, or receptive language delay, limiting your words, giving them lots of time to process language, and using lots of gesture is essential.
Take a step back and feed in language while play:
You can enhance your child's improvement of language by sometimes taking a step back while play and letting them take the lead. This gives the child control of their environment and builds their confidence. Although you are still involved in the play you are not dictating what is happening. However, you can still be feeding language into the play as it is happening. So the takeaway here is not to feel you have to fill in any gaps of silence, just watch and listen and add language. For instance, if your daughter is playing with her dolls, just watch, add language to her words and dictate some of her actions.
Chloe: dolly tea
Mum: the dolly's drinking tea, and that one is having a sandwich
Chloe: sandwich
Mum: mmm sandwich, whats it got in it...jam, a jam sandwich mmm
Chloe: mmmm sandwich
Mum: mmmmm jam sandwich yummy
Chloe: more tea
Mum: more tea for dolly and teddy is drinking tea too
Chloe: cake
Mum: oooh, are they getting cake too, yummy
Chloe: yummy cake
Mum: yum yum yum eating lots of cake (rubs tummy)
This is a uncomplicated example and although mum is only adding a few new words she is acknowledging her daughters words and she is expanding on her sentences. Chloe can hear her words being put into longer more grammatical sentences and a combine of verbs are added (eating and drinking). Chloe remains in payment throughout the game, she leads the game and the dictates what is happening. This situation allows her control so there is no pressure on her to spin and the communication environment is a relaxed and nurturing place.
Think about the language you use while play:
Children do not learn language by having an adult continually request them to name various items. Children learn by hearing words and linking them to things. So it is a good idea to feed language into play, rather than request your child to name every toy they are playing with. Adding language is an easy thing to do and can be done in all types of dissimilar situations, not just play. You can comment on what the child sees, commentate on what your child is doing, or develop on what they have said e.g.
Child: car
Adult: that's right, it's a car, a fast car
or
Adult: that's right, it's a car, a red car,and there is a blue car
Child: cat
Adult: yes, the cat is climbing (gesture the actions, and emphasize the key words cat and climbing)
The other way to add language is to spin what your child is doing while play. For instance, if your daughter is playing with her dolls in the dolls house, give a minuscule commentary:
Jane: dolly
Dad: dolly's going in the house
Jane: sit
Dad: dolly's sitting down
Jane: drink
Dad: dolly's got a cup, she is drinking tea drink tea
Jane: tea
Dad: yes, dolly is drinking tea... And now she is eating cake
The temptation here is to ask a question, such as "what is dolly doing" or "what is dolly drinking". This immediately puts the emphasis on the child, and they then have to stop their play and respond. By just commenting, you are not putting any pressure on your child to spin so the play is more relaxed. The child is also able to play on their own terms and control the game.
Having a shared focus:
The above examples show the significance of having a shared focus. This is foremost because not only are you giving the child a point of reference when you talk about things, but the child is learning listening and using attention skills. These skills are vitally foremost for the child when they attend school and the early years are key years for developing these skills. The best ways to establish these skills is to spend time with your child, talk and play with child, and have a shared focus.
Try and establish a shared focus with your child whenever you are entertaining in communication.
Share the occasion and look at things together. Make sure you are at the child's level and have good eye contact. It is foremost to notice what interests your child and what they are focusing on, and then comment on it. This helps originate a shared focus, shows the child that you are concerned and allows them to link language to the things they are Finding at when you comment.
Also make sure you attend to the child's vocalizations or attempts at speech and try and translate them. If you are able to riposte and understand your child's attempts at speech it encourages them to attempt more, and at the same time you are providing a good model of the speech. If you can't understand your child, repeat back her word, but at the same time point to things you think she may be trying to say.
Most daily activities can involve a shared focus:
Shopping: tell your child what item you are Finding for, that way you can turn your attention to the items on the shelves and name some of them. You can name them for your child, if she does not recognise them.
Reading books: this is an exquisite way to have a shared focus. Look at the book, talk about the pictures and read the story.
Cooking: make a cake together, talk about the ingredients and what you are doing (stirring, mixing, pouring etc). result a formula step by step (sequencing skills).
Toys: have a tea party with your daughter and her dolls. spin what every person is doing (but don't ask questions and let your daughter take the lead). Do the voices for some of the dolls and add language that way.
Pretend play to establish language and group skills:
Pretend play is someone else great way to establish your child's imagination and add lots of language at the same time. Letting your child lead the game also gives them a sense of control and can build self confidence. Here is an example of how a dad and his son pretend to be firemen and all the dissimilar ways that this can be educational for the child (see below). We will also give you some other examples.
Example 1. - Firemen
You are a dad and you have 15 minutes to spend with your 4-year old son. You decree to be firemen and imagine that you have got a call to put out a fire in a big building. Firstly let's think about the Language we will be using:
Nouns: fire, fireman, hat, boots, hose, water, fire engine, smoke, ladder
Verbs: drive, climb, run, jump, smell
Adjectives: hot, wet
Prepositions: in front, in, on
Social skills: Turn-taking and shared focus
Self confidence: Let your son be the chief fireman, let him give you the orders
Affection: Give him a hug to celebrate when you put the fire out and save all the people
How easy was that!! This is just one short uncomplicated minuscule role play where a boy is playing, learning, listening and using language, Building group skills, Building self confidence, and bonding with his dad. Dad only needed 15 minutes out of his day to do it. It is not hard, you can do it in short bursts when you have minuscule pieces of time.
Example 2. Dress up for the ball
Have a dress-up with your daughter and imagine you are going to a ball. Language used:
Nouns: dress, shoes, ball, make-up, hair etc
Verbs: dress, dance, fasten etc
Adjectives: pretty, elegant etc
Prepositions: on, in, under etc
Social skills: A shared focus, talking about the ball
These are uncomplicated examples and with a bit of imagination could be extensive in all sorts of ways, but it illustrates that it is easy to originate playtime situations, that are fun and also can be used to well promote speech and language skills, group skills and build confidence.
Body language and using gesture:
Try to use body language and gesture when you speak. This helps the child understand what you are saying, but it may also teach them to do the same so that they can make themselves understood more effectively. Body language plays a huge part in helping others gain meaning from what we say, this is a good skill for children to learn, especially if their speech is not clear in the early years.
Answering your children's questions and turn-taking:
Children are inquisitive and it is foremost to always take the time to riposte their questions. Answering questions creates a 2-way communication process, because you both have a turn and you both have to wait and use good listening skills. Sometimes children go through a phase of request "why" in response to all you say. If this becomes a habit (rather than a genuine question), riposte with your riposte and then ask them a question. This creates a turn-taking occasion and at the same time making the child to riposte to a question. If you want your children to learn language and establish speech and group skills - Turn Off The Tv And Talk To Them And Play With Them!!!
Johan Langfield - Speech and Language Therapist
construction a Loving, Learning, & Language Rich Environment through Play and sure Daily Interaction
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