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Language is an important foundation for learning. As a parent, you are an important part of your child’s language development.
So what can you do to help your child's speech and language be the best it can be?
Believe it or not, there are some easy strategies that you can incorporate right within your hectic day. Here's some tips to get started.
1. Check milestones / common core standards/ school curriculum expectations to make sure that your child is keeping up. Check the "free stuff" tab on this website to access our milestone handouts.
If a child is having trouble with a certain skill, the foundational skills that came before it might be weak.
2. Spend a little time each day on talking attentively with your child.
Pick a time – maybe a car ride, or right before dinner.
Ask questions. And notice how your child organizes her thoughts. Does her grammar sound okay? Does she ramble? Could she be more descriptive?
Model the remedy to any deficits you see. For example, If a child is having trouble with past tense, stress and repeat past tense.
3. Pay attention to teacher input.
Is your child following along in class? Can they understand and follow directions?
Can they express what they are learning? Feel free to ask about this during conferences, and address any deficits as soon as you see them.
4. Read together
Pick a book your child likes. Read in the same space, taking turns, and asking / answering detail –oriented questions.
Or, read parallel- with you reading the book on your time, and your child reading on her time. Then come together at the end of the month to discuss.
You can read anything. Fiction, by the way, is not useless. It’s great for building vocabulary, developing empathy, engaging in critical thinking, and refining morals and values. Look for “discussion questions” for whatever title you pick.
5. Learn new vocabulary words
Point out new words in surroundings, or in books. Ask the child to guess what they mean based on context (an important reading comprehension skill).
6. Encourage journaling and scrapbooking.
This can be an interactive activity – writing down goals, logging fun experiences. A child can see that organizing and embellishing information on paper is fun.
7. Roleplay social situations
As a parent, you are the primary educator for how your child treats others, and reacts to others.
Make social skills a game. Play board games, and on your turn, make up intriguing questions, like “What would you do if a kid is playing by himself at recess?” Model and shape your child’s answers. You can even pick questions based on how you see your child interacting during play dates and social events.
“If somebody is not looking at their aunt when their aunt is talking to them, how would the aunt feel?” is a sample board game question based on a not – so – spectacular interaction at a party.
So there you have it. Some simple modifications you can get started on today. Happy talking!
Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.
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