As a parent, you want what is best for your preschooler, and understanding the crucial role you play in your child’s language development is key. During these first years, our preschoolers are eager to learn and understand the world around them, their brain is like a sponge trying to soak any new words and concepts that are introduced to them. Here are some key expectations and day-to-day activities to foster and develop your child’s expressive and receptive language.
1. Create a language-rich environment:
Having a household where conversations, narration, and storytelling are a core part of their day-to-day creates an environment that fosters language development. Engaging meaningful conversations with your child, having your child be part of meaningful conversations with two or more adults, and asking open-ended questions sets the foundation for your child’s expressive language.
Describing your daily activities throughout the day, whether it be bath time, cooking or going shopping provides the vocabulary for your child to understand the world around them. It also provides concrete examples
Sharing story time, reading, and observing books according to their age fosters a love of reading that impacts later years.
Surrounding your child with a language-rich environment enables your child to:
- Initiate and attend to brief conversations.
- Tell simple stories about objects, events, and people not present.
- Create three to four-word sentences.
2. Encourage play
Pretend play and playdates encourage your child to use their imaginative play, which usually involves dialogue and storytelling even if they are quietly playing. Participating in their play scenarios, especially while mimicking the experiences from their daily activities, allows the opportunity to expand their new vocabulary, explain how things work, and model appropriate expressive language.
Playdates with other children promote language development through communication and cooperation. Social interaction expands the world your child is experiencing, through playdates children can learn new vocabulary, experience new ways for things to work, and use social skills to interact with others.
Pretend play and playdates allow your child to:
-Participate cooperatively and constructively in group situations.
-Interact with peers.
-Engage in conversation with children their age.
-Connect experiences.
3. Sing songs and nursery rhymes
Repetitive melodies create opportunities for children to recognize and remember words and phrases through practice. Singing songs and nursery rhymes together, as well as music creates new neural pathways that encourage language development.
To songs, nursery rhymes, and music, adding hand movements, dances, and other fun activities helps your child understand and remember the words, as it becomes a significant experience.
Singing songs and nursery rhymes fosters in your preschooler:
-To begin to notice and discriminate rhyme.
-Explore musical concepts and expression.
-Recognizes and recalls familiar people, places, and things.
4. Supervise and limit screen time
It is true that we live in a highly technological world, however, our preschoolers will have sufficient time to explore any and all devices available out there. To truly foster your preschool skills, supervising and limiting screen time will reap the benefits during this time of their development. We do know eliminating all screen time seems impossible, we do recommend supervising what content your child is watching. When allowing screen time, choose high-quality, educational programs that will promote language development.
The vast ocean of videos and online games available can easily create hours and hours of your child stuck to the screen. Set time limits, whether they are daily, weekly, or monthly to ensure screen time does not replace the interactions and activities with adults and other children in their day. A visual timer will be best for your child and any adults around them to be aware of screen time limits in place. It is important to reinforce this limit every time your child is allowed to be on a screen.
Limiting screen time will enable your preschooler to:
- Foster their imagination through play
- Foster concrete sensory input by engaging in the world around them
- Understand limits and expectations
Every child develops at their own pace. Creating a patient, supporting and enriching environment will enable your preschooler’s language skills to flourish. Parent involvement is key, and creating a language-rich environment will create a strong foundation for your child’s future success.
However, if you notice that the tips mentioned above have not yielded the results you expect, or observe significant language delays and difficulties, early intervention should be your priority. Seek the guidance of a professional, that will provide the necessary intervention for your child and at home to foster their communicative skills.
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