When your child isn’t communicating much, it’s very concerning. Parents are always wanting advice on how to help their child. The best thing you can do to help your child is be a good model. This is true in many areas of development and throughout their entire lives. Not only do we model good language, we also model behavior and health and lifestyle choices. Think about it…kids imitate things you do every day. I have pictures of my two-year-old following his daddy in the yard pushing a little lawn mower. He is imitating was his father is modeling. In his little mind, he was probably thinking, “Daddy’s mow yards.” Lol. We’ve all said things like “because I said so” and we say it because we heard our parents said it to us. I’ve heard my daughter use the same phrases that I know I’ve said at some point in time. Everything you do, your child is watching and observing. This never stops! So, when it comes to language, you need to be a good model. For young children and minimally verbal children, there are 5 basic types of modeling that I want to share…
The first is language expansion. You (the adult) are simply restating what the child says but adding a few words to it. For example, if your son is playing with a truck and says “truck”, you could say, “a big red truck” or “the truck goes zoom”, etc. A second type of modeling is self-talk. This is when the adult talks about what they (the adult) are doing, sort of like narrating your life or your activity. Statements like, “I’m hungry. I want a snack. I am eating an apple.” “I want to sit down on the couch. This tv show is funny.” When shopping at the grocery store: “we need apples. I am going to get 5 red apples.” When driving in the car: “I need to turn on the car. I see a stop sign. Look it’s our house, we are home.” It may feel silly to say things about what you are doing, but providing more simple statements is great for your child to hear. There are all sorts of studies that talk about the more words a child hears, the more vocabulary they have and the more likely they are to acquire reading easier. Parallel talk is another way to model good language. This is simply talking about what they (the child) are doing. “You’re taking a bath. Here is the soap. It makes bubbles. Time to rinse your hair. Time to dry off. Where are your clothes. They are in your drawer.” “Your shoe is untied. You need me to tie your shoe.” “The horse it going into the barn. The horse says neigh.” Another type of modeling is recasting. This is when the adult changes a child phrase to a different type of statement (declarative, question, etc.). If the child says “mommy, no” (declarative). The adult might change it to “you don’t want mommy to tie your shoe?” (question). If the child says “more juice.” The adult would say “Do you want more juice?” Another strategy that is helpful for encouraging language is using cloze phrases. This is a sentence completion strategy where the last word in a sentence (or several words) are left off and the child completes the sentence. Some examples of using cloze phrases would be during reading books with the child, “hickory dickory dock, the mouse went up the ___”. Or during playing with playdough, “oh my playdough feels _____”. When you smell something in the kitchen, “the cookies smell ____ (yummy, good)” or “I smell the yummy cookies with my ____(nose). Using a visual such as rubbing your tummy when you are cueing yummy, or touching your nose when talking about smelling are also helpful to encourage appropriate language. The whole point of modeling good language in a variety of different ways is to bombard your child with a language rich environment. The more words a child is exposed to is related to how easily language is acquired. Another great way to provide a language rich environment for your child is to read EVERY DAY to them. There are studies that state that children who are read 5 books a day, enter kindergarten having been exposed to well over a million words! There is evidence to support that this is also linked to easier acquisition of language skills. Read, read, read. And talk to your child frequently. With all of that being said, notice when your child is being overwhelmed with language. Allow time for your child to process what you are saying. Keep your statements and questions simple. Repeat when necessary.
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SLP'sThis website is created for parents, teachers, and caregivers of students. You will find useful tips and ideas to help increase your child's speech and language skills as they grow and develop. Categories
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November 2020
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