Caregiver Tip! Strategies to Use While Communicating with Your Child
It is extremely important that children are immersed in language-rich environments from an early age. This means that children should have access to toys, books, and play throughout the day as well as adult models to build communication skills. While playing with your child, or talking to them throughout the day, here is a list of strategies to use for effective communication.
· Provide language models throughout the day: “Let’s go play outside!”, “Open the door”, “Wow, it is sunny today!”
· Respond to communication attempts, even if you cannot understand what your child is saying: “I see you reaching for the ball… here you go!”
· Extend what your child says into a longer phrase/sentence: “Ball! Yes, that’s a ball.”
· Expand what your child says: “Yes, a ball! The ball is red and bouncy.”
· Limit the number of questions you ask. Instead of asking “What is it?”, model “look it’s a dog!”
· Don’t expect your child to answer or comment right away, give them time to respond!
