Strategies to Promote Language Development

• Spend time making noises and silly sounds with your child.
• Encourage your child to repeat the noise and sound patterns back and forth.

• Imitate their laughter and facial expressions.
• Teach your child to imitate your actions, including clapping your hands, throwing kisses, and playing finger games such as pat-a-cake (patty-cake), peek-a-boo and itsy-bitsy-spider.

When your child plays with:

• A toy, find a similar toy and join in with what they are doing. Use the toys to interact. For example, with a car, crash into their car, you can say “Crash!” or “Oh no!”
• Toy food, pretend to eat the food.
• A stuffed animal, grab another animal and pretend to growl and say something like, “Got you!” Use fun sounds and words.

• Treat whatever your child does (their sounds or gestures) as if they are sending you a message. Respond to their sounds or gestures.
• When your child pulls or leads you to an object, say the words they would use if they could. Label the object with its name such as “book” or “goldfish” instead of “that” or “thing.”
• Use fun words. Fun words like “uh oh” when your child spills their water or “yucky” when there’s a mess may be easier to say. Try to say them the same exaggerated way each time.
• If your child is interested in songs or music, try singing words to interpret. For example, when you walk in the door, sing “HEL-lo!”
• If your child uses pictures to communicate, say the word for the picture.
• Stress and emphasize important or new words. For example, you might say “open the door” and stress the action word open.

• Give your child time to respond before you speak.

• Limit asking questions like, “What is this?”
• Instead, make more statements or talk more about the activity or object.
• For every 1 question you ask, try to make 4 comments (use the ratio of 1 to 4).

• Narrate what your child is doing or what you are doing.
  
  • “You’re petting the dog.”
  • “I’m cooking dinner.”

• Talk about your own actions and thoughts. Thinking aloud models vocabulary and syntax much better than questions and directions.
  
  • “I’m going to drive the car. I need to find my keys.”
• Some ideas include:
  
  • Talk about what you see, feel or hear.
  • Talk about actions.
  • Talk about emotions.
  • Talk about the future.
  • Talk about the past.
• Teach your child to use sounds, words and gestures to communicate. Model using signs/gestures and words together. For example, say “more” and move your hands apart, “bye bye” and wave, “no” and shake your head.
• Avoid asking yes/no questions. Ask questions that require a choice of options you give. Your child will develop vocabulary by asking for specific requests rather than answering yes/no.
  
  • For example, ask your child, “Do you want milk or water?” rather than asking, “Do you want more milk?”

• Echo when your child gives you 1 word and expand it by adding 1 extra word. For example, if your child says, “shoe”, echo and expand by saying “shoe on.”

• If your child says, "big car,” you might say, "Yes, that's a large car" or "Yes, that’s a huge car."

• If your child says, "I have a cookie," you might say, "You have a yummy chocolate chip cookie.”

• If your child says, "big ball," you might say, "I'm making it bigger” or “Now it is the biggest."

• Say it louder.
• Say it with a higher voice.
• Say it with a lower voice.
• Say it slowly.

• Increasing vocabulary
• Practice creating complex sentences

• “I wonder…”
• “I think…”
• “…because…”
• “…so that…”

• “What…”
• “How…”
• “Who….”
• “When…”
• “Where…”
• “Why…”