Here we look at simple ways encourage and enjoy your child’s language development.

Usually, a child needs to master one milestone before reaching the next. Babies usually start cooing at around 2 months and are babbling by about 6 months. A child usually speaks in gibberish, called jargon, by the first birthday.

Fun activities that help develop language learning in children

• Word games. Expand your children’s vocabulary with word games.
• Jokes. Telling age-appropriate puns will also help foster good humour and creativity in children.
• Riddles. Riddles are fun ways to use words and paint pictures of scenes or situations.
• Rhymes.
• Homonyms.
• Storytelling.
• Songs.
• Tongue twisters.

1. Get your child’s attention. Face your child or sit down with them.
2. Have fun together.
3. Comments not questions.
4. Give them time to think.
5. Use simple language.
6. Repeat what you say.
7. Make it easier for them to listen.
8. Build on what they say.

Between 6 and 9 months, babies babble in syllables and start imitating tones and speech sounds. By 12 months, a baby’s first words usually appear, and by 18 months to 2 years children use around 50 words and will start putting two words together into a short sentences.

Normal language development involves the acquisition of the rules for producing and understanding the sounds, words, sentences, and conventions for their socially appropriate use in the speech community in which a child is living.

Definition. Language development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood.

Play enables children to practice the language skills they have learnt and build on their expanding vocabulary. Interacting with adults and peers also enables children to refine their speech sounds through listening to others. Building social development is fundamental in acquiring and encouraging language development.

Teachers play an important role in the language development of children in early childhood classrooms. Your efforts in building a relationship where communication is valued, and in implementing strategies that deliberately expand children’s vocabulary, make a lasting impact over their educational years.

Simple Ways to Promote Speech and Language Development

1. Engage. Get down on the child’s physical level (by kneeling, for example).
2. Encourage Conversations. Comment on what the child is doing and wait for a response.
3. Extend Language and Learning. Repeat what the child says then add a little bit more or a new vocabulary word.

Reading books with children helps develop their language skills by: Engaging children’s imaginations, stimulating imaginative play (a primary way children learn about the world), and introducing children to things and places they may not have a chance to learn about otherwise, such as oceans or dinosaurs.

When children begin school, they need to extend their language skills to include reading and writing. Telling and listening to stories provides a bridge between the oral language skills of early childhood and the more formal language of print.

The related research emphasizes that in the interactive reading method, adults follow the writings in a book with their finger and voice the target sound units, which helps children to establish a connection between writing and reading, to recognize the sound properties of writing and words and that explanations made …

9 Ways to Help Your Child’s Language Development

1. Talk, talk, talk. Narrate the day as it evolves.
2. Read, read, read. It’s never too early to read to your baby.
3. Enjoy music together.
4. Tell stories.
5. Follow your child’s lead.
6. Never criticize your child’s articulation or speech patterns.
7. Use television and computers sparingly.
8. Treat ear infections thoroughly.

Risk factors for language delay

• being male.
• being born prematurely.
• having a low birth weight.
• having a family history of speech or language problems.
• having parents with lower levels of education.

There are four main stages of normal language acquisition: The babbling stage, the Holophrastic or one-word stage, the two-word stage and the Telegraphic stage.

Here are some tips for teaching ESL to children:

1. Involve children in hands-on activities.
2. Avoid talking for long periods of time.
3. Children learn by interacting with each other and with the teacher.
4. Review, Review, Review.
5. Encourage students to correct themselves and other students.
6. Use what is learned in different contexts.

To help your child understand verb tenses, draw some ‘tense tents’ on pieces of paper. Write down some verbs in their various tenses – present (e.g. play), past (played), future (will play), future continuous (will be playing) and so on – and get your child to move the verbs into the correct tent.

You can gradually make sessions longer as your child gets older and their concentration span increases. Keep the activities short and varied in order to hold your child’s attention. Try to do certain activities at the same time every day. Children feel more comfortable and confident when they know what to expect.

Follow these tips to help your child improve their grammar….Work together with children to create child-friendly definitions of the following elements of punctuation, amongst others:

1. Full stop: Put at the end of sentences.
2. Exclamation marks: Adds emphasis to a word (wow!) or phrase (it was terrible!)

Paul Thompson and his team found out that the brain systems in charge of language learning have accelerated growth from six years old until puberty. Another study was done at MIT and it concluded that the most optimal time to learn a new language and achieve native fluency was by age 10.