Children who grow up listening to music develop strong music-related connections that in turn strengthen their language skills. Music helps us retain words and expressions much more effectively. The rhythm of the music, as well as the repetitive patterns within the song, help us memorize words.

Rhymes promote language learning in several ways. Rhymes demonstrate how to combine these sounds to form words. Rhymes also teach appropriate pitch, voice inflection, cadence, volume, and rhythm. Moreover, nursery rhymes often expose children to uncommon words, thus expanding their vocabularies.

Nursery rhymes are important for young children because they help develop an ear for our language. Both rhyme and rhythm help kids hear the sounds and syllables in words, which helps kids learn to read!

Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development

1. Say sound like “ma,” “da,” and “ba.” Try to get your baby to say them back to you.
2. Look at your baby when he makes sounds.
3. Respond when your baby laughs or makes faces.
4. Teach your baby to do what you do, like clapping your hands and playing peek-a-boo.

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.

11 Ways to Improve Your Students’ Oral Language Skills

• Encourage conversation.
• Model syntactic structure.
• Maintain eye contact.
• Remind students to speak loudly and articulate clearly.
• Explain the subtleties of tone.
• Attend to listening skills.
• Incorporate a “question of the day.”

Children acquire language through interaction – not only with their parents and other adults, but also with other children. All normal children who grow up in normal households, surrounded by conversation, will acquire the language that is being used around them.

7 secrets of childlike learning that you can put into practice today:

1. Take Time to Observe.
2. Go Exploring.
3. Learn from Everyday Moments.
4. Model Other People’s Good Qualities.
5. Take Time to Read.
6. Talk to Others.
7. Be a Hands-On Person.

Children and teenagers learn by observing, listening, exploring, experimenting and asking questions. Being interested, motivated and engaged in learning is important for children once they start school. It can also help if they understand why they’re learning something.

The 5 stages of child development

• Cognitive Development.
• Social and Emotional Development.
• Speech and Language Development.
• Fine Motor Skill Development.
• Gross Motor Skill Development.

We detail helpful strategies to help you do just that.

1. #1 Help kids take charge of their learning goals.
2. #2 Play games to encourage independent learning/self discovery.
3. #3 Provoke emotional responses, so the topic becomes more memorable.
4. #4 Understand your child’s attention span and “on-task” limits.

Kids learn faster than adults because the prefrontal cortex of the brain, where working memory is stored, is more developed more in adults than children. Due to the development of the prefrontal cortex, adults experience functional fixedness and that makes adults see everything exactly as it is.

Researchers Think They Know How to Make Your Brain Learn Like a Kid Again. Kids have amazing brains. They can pick up two languages in early childhood just as easily as they can learn one. If those researchers are right, it might be possible for us to one day regain some of our ability to learn like kids.

This data has also given us a really amazing insight into language learning in general and shows that adults of any age can obtain incredible mastery nearly as quickly as children.

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

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.

No only is it not realistic to expect to speak like a native, it is not necessary. We learn languages either to enjoy them and the related culture, or to communicate with the natives of that language, for pleasure or work.

The critical period hypothesis (CPH) states that the first few years of life constitute the time during which language develops readily and after which (sometime between age 5 and puberty) language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful.

Beyond this time a language is more difficult to acquire. According to Lenneberg, bilingual language acquisition can only happen during the critical period (age 2 to puberty). This loss of the brain´s plasticity explains why adults may need more time and effort compared to children in second language learning.

Bowlby’s suggests that there is a critical period for developing at attachment (2.5 years). If an attachment has not developed during this time period then then it may well not happen at all. Bowlby later proposed a sensitive period of up to 5 years.

In humans, critical periods are extended over years and there are different critical periods for different brain functions (for example binocular vision or language acquisition) and unless a certain function is learned during this period, the function will remain poor.

Recent brain research indicates that birth to age three are the most important years in a child’s development. Here are some tips to consider during your child’s early years: Be warm, loving, and responsive. Talk, read, and sing to your child.

We’ll now take a brief look at each of these 7 areas and why they are important.

• Communication and language development.
• Physical development.
• Personal, social, and emotional development.
• Literacy development.
• Mathematics.
• Understanding the world.
• Expressive arts and design.

5 Main Areas of Child Development

• cognitive development,
• social and emotional development,
• speech and language development,
• fine motor skill development, and.
• gross motor skill development.