We are constantly looking for new games and activities to help stimulate our children’s early language
but the most motivating and attention holding techniques are right at your finger tips. Using the
natural environment will significantly increase communication. Every activity we participate in
throughout the day is loaded with a variety of language including vocabulary, concepts, following
directions and ‘wh’ questions. These are the core of many speech therapist’s goals and are achieved
significantly faster if they are targeted in multiple nvironments. This article will describe early
language development and provide parents with some examples of how to increase their child’s
communication throughout the day. This may be hard to imagine when you can barely get through
through the day as it is but it may be easier than you think and can be be fun.
Children demand time and parents are constantly trying to balance home and family. Instead of
using time to play with or teach your child and then taking more time to do a household task, why
not combine the two? Take your child with you around the house and involve him/her with whatever
you are doing. Talk about what you’re doing, show them, ask questions, let them help you. You will be
teaching communication, completing a task and keeping your child engaged. Also, your child will most
likely welcome a break after all that stimulation which will give you more time for your next task. In
addition you will often find that that engaging your child in any household/community activity can be
motivating and hold their attention, both which are key to teaching anything. This will not be the
case for every activity all the time but it’s easy to find out which ones will be. For example, if you
are doing laundry, take your child with you and as you are engaging him/her look at how interested
he/she is. If you see that the interest level is high, keep talking, showing, asking questions and,
most importantly, let your child participate. Your child will love to, not only push a button, but feel
in control if he/she gets to choose what to put in or take out of the washer. Once you find
something that holds your child’s interest try to do it multiple times. You may feel like a broken
record but if you child is attentive, he/she is processing and learning. If your child is nonverbal or
does not respond continue to model the words you are trying to elicit (e.g. “what’s this? It’s a
basket”). Eventually your child will start knowing the routine, initiating and making some connections
to your questions and comments.
It is important to have some understanding of early language development and what your are trying
to elicit. Below are some basics of early language development and some things you can say or ask
your child. As you read through it you will see that targetting one area will also targetting others.
Try to think about how you can elicit communication throughout your day: waking up, getting dressed,
going places in the community, playing, cooking, cleaning, eating, setting the table, loading/unloading
the dishwasher, doing laundry, taking a bath, getting ready for bed etc. The list can go on and on.
Questions. When asking your child a question he/she may not understand so ask it, give the answer,
then ask it again (e.g. “What is it? It’s a ball. What is it?). It’s o.k. if you do not get a response.
If your child appears interested in what you are saying, it is likely he/she is processing the
information for later comprehension, especially if it is introduced multiple times. Asking questions
will target a variety of concepts, vocabulary and pronouns as well as encourage social communication.
It will also set the foundation for your child to start asking questions. What, who and where are
earlier developing ‘wh’ questions and are listed in the below examples. When and why are usually not
targeted until later on.
| WHAT | WHO | WHERE |
| What do you want? What are you doing? What do you have? What do you see? What do you hear? |
Who is that? Who wants_? Who has the_? Who has the _? Who is (action) ? |
Where are we going? Where is the_? Where is (person)? |
Yes/No Questions “Is this a__?”, “Do you want/have __?”, “Can I have_” and “Are you_?
Vocabulary. Children often identify (receptive language) before they can verbalize (expressive
language) so remember to start with “Show me” before “Tell me”. Vocabulary is the core of language
development and is more than just labeling items. Below are areas of vocabulary and examples of
what you can say while you are interacting with your child
| Receptive | Expressive | |
| Label | “Show me the_______” | “What is it?” |
| Function | “What do you read?” | “What do you do with a book?” |
| Category | “Find 3_______” | “Tell me 3 things you eat” |
| -food, animals, toys, clothes, furniture, transportation etc. | ||
| Attribute | “Find something that is__” | “Tell me 3 things about__” |
| -size, shape, color, descriptive concepts: big/small, wet/dry. heavy/light, open/shut, hot cold, empty/full |
||
Concepts and following directions:
You can provide directions while eliciting a variety of concepts.
Descriptive: “Find something that is_ “( big/little, heavy/light, open/shut, red, square)
Spatial: “Put the fork next to the plate” ( in, on, under, front, behind, next to)
Sequential: “First put the spoon in the dishwasher then shut the door”
Quantitative: “get three cups”
Negatives:
“No” is often one of the first words kids learn and can be expanded to other useful
communication skills. Some examples include
:
“Is that a ball? No. its a cup” This also target’s yes/no questions.
If your child is pushing something away, you can model “I don’t want that”
If you ask “What do you have? and he/she doesn’t answer model “I don’t know”
If your child wants something, give him/her something else and say. “That’s not a_. It’s a__”
Encourage initiation:
It’s important for children to not only learn how to express but to do so
without always being prompted. Setting up the environment so things are wrong or items are
missing is often fun for kids. This will encourage your child to comment on it. If he/she has trouble
finding the words, give them to him/her by providing a model. Again, if they are nterested, they
are most likely trying to figure it out. When getting dressed you can put their sock on their hand
and say “Does it go on your hand? No. That’s silly, it goes on your foot”. Hand your child a box of
cereal and say “Here’s your food”. Wait for a response and explain what was supposed to happen “First we have to open the box, then pour it in a bowl”. You can also give him/her a fork instead of a
spoon. Put his/her pillow under their feet and say goodnight to them. Fix it by saying “That’s not
where the pillow goes. Where does it go? It goes under your head” Instruct your child to color a
picture but do not give them crayons. When you do activities like these you will find children trying
to figure out what’s wrong even if they don’t have the words. This promotes problem solving skills
which is another great language skill.
There are several areas of language development that can not be practiced all the time but many of
the above examples can be elicited or modeled in most settings with most activities. When deciding
what to teach, think about something you’ve noticed that is either hard for your child or something
that you noticed he/she is starting to learn. This will help take some guess work out. Otherwise,
keep talking to your child, show them what you are doing and let them help. It’s important to watch
your child’s attention level. To much interaction and talking can be overstimulating and your child
may need a break. Don’t forget to praise your child for good responses and make sure you have fun.
Below is an example ofhow you can participate in one activity with your child.