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Modeling Language
One way children learn language is through modeling. When children first begin to communicate they often use gestures. It is natural to just accept the gesture and respond to your child’s wants. These times are a perfect opportunity to model language and model the words that go with the gesture. The following are ways you can help enhance your child’s language development,
- Praise-When your child says or attempts to say the word you have been modeling, it’s important to praise them and let them know they have done a good job. Praising your child will reinforce the behavior/language.
- Require your child to communicate– Once your child has the ability to use some words to request, ensure they continue to use words and language to communicate, this may be hard for some parents, especially those who know what their children want just by the child’s actions. Requiring them to communicate will help the child understand that this is what they need to do to get what they want.
- Parallel talk/self-talk-This is an easy strategy that involves narrating the action you are doing as well as stating the actions the child is doing as they do them. If this is done repeatedly, then the child will begin to make the connection between the words and the actions.
- Expansion and extensions-This technique involves the parents building upon what the child has said. For example if the child labels a toy or an object, the parent will build upon that and say a sentence about that object.
- Set up the environment– Set up your child’s environment so they are tempted to use language. One way to tempt your child to use language is to put a toy in the child’s view but out of reach, then they will have to use communication to request that item. Another suggestion is change up your child’s routine. If you forget to do something the child does every day, the child will attempt to express that this specific task was forgotten by communicating.
Reference
http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2011/11/strategies-to-help-your-child-talk-modeling-and-requiring-language/
Michelle Weiman MA CF-SLP
