Language Development - How to Give Your Child a Leg Up

If you want to develop your child's language capabilities, you must first have time to spend with the child. The child needs to be your first priority. Music is a good start: sing songs or play music for the child. Studies show that music is a giant help in brain development for children.

Repetition

You must speak to the child and give the child time to try to say the words back to you. Try first making your daily routine a game for the child. Use your food and activities to talk to the child. Show them the things that you are using and use the proper words for that item. Have them repeat the words back to you. They need to practice forming the words.

Steps to Learning

There are three steps to learning: children must first listen and see how you talk about things. Then, they discern between different sounds. Later, they put the sounds and the actions together, then, finally, they have the "aha" moment when they figure out exactly what you mean by saying a word for an action. If you are ever suspicious that your child has a developmental problem, do not hesitate to talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Mimic

The baby will do exactly whatever you do. If you smile at your baby, your baby tries to mimic and do whatever it is that you do. You can strike up a conversation anytime you are working with your child. If you are changing their diaper, tell them exactly what you're doing. If you feel strange about that, you can talk to them about whatever other topic you want to. Do not use baby talk and be sure to pronounce your words exactly how you want them to pronounce them. Tell the child or baby exactly what is happening all around them at all times.

Multimedia Tools

Since time began, parents have used tools available to them to teach their kids. Cavemen wrote on the walls of caves to show their offspring what they were talking about. Then, they moved on to stone tablets. Finally, we got paper. Thank goodness we now have computers.

Popular multimedia tools include CDs, DVDs, interactive games, the internet, etc. These things can all take you as far as your imagination. They also make the learning fun. You can use these tools that are designed and developed by language specialists that make learning stimulating and not boring for your children. Your multimedia can include the internet and your local library.

Each child is different, so do not get impatient if one of your children is slower or faster than your other children. Be sure to talk to your doctor about any concerns that you might have. Over plan the time you want to spend with your child, as something inevitably always comes up. Play games, sing songs and just have conversations with your child. These things will all stimulate their language development.

Herman Sunday is an author writing on Parenting and Home Schooling. Visit my blog and get free access to Herman's Video Blog at http://www.hermansunday.com