How to Help Your Children Build Superior Language Skills

Language skills are important not only for academic success, but also to your child's future.  For example, strong communications can help them to manage their emotions, develop healthy relationships, and succeed professionally.

As a parent, you can accelerate and enhance Your children’s verbal development by the way you interact with them. Many studies show that talking and reading with your children extensively from an early age helps them to increase their vocabulary and other verbal abilities.  Although reading the same story to them over and over might drive you crazy, your children are leaning an d remembering new words and their minds are developing readiness for reading.

To give your sons and daughters a head start, follow these practical tips full of simple and fun activities that will help your child to speak and write more effectively.  Use these 14 tips  asa guide or to give you new ideas.

Tips for Talking with Your Child

1. Sing and dance.

Children enjoy sounds and movement. Music also makes lessons more memorable and demonstrates the rhythm of language. Focus on repetitive lyrics and funny tunes.  Movement, music and repetition helps them learn.

2. Share stories.

Make up stories for your children and invite them to create their own tales. Personalize your works by using the names of family members and other familiar information.  Create books with them based on those stories. This will help develop their reading and writing skills.

3. Ask questions.

Children learn by asking questions, and answering them can help too. Use open-ended inquiries that will stimulate conversation.  

4. Play word games.

Make learning fun with puzzles, puns, and riddles. Show how words that sound the same can have different meanings. Laugh about silly noises like ducks quacking and balloons popping.  

5. Discuss routine activities.

Turn household chores and errands into teachable moments. Describe what you're doing as you bake a cake or go shopping for school supplies.  Allowing them to take part in baking teaches them math and science.  Shopping provides an opportunity to comparison shop, learn math, and introduce them to commerce.

6. Follow their lead.

Give your child your full attention when they're talking to you. Build on what they're saying. Ask them how they feel about various situations.  Doing this teaches them to get in touch with their feelings.  It also gives you an opportunity to show them how to process those feelings and understand them.

Tips for Reading with Your Child

1.Create a home library.

Fill your home with attractive and enriching books and other reading material. Design an inviting reading nook like a table covered with blankets to look like a fort or a stack of soft pillows on the floor.

2. Encourage their interests.

Pick books about your child's favorite subjects. Maybe they're wild about horses or robots.

3. Expand their vocabulary.

Teach your child new words. Sound them out together and use them in a sentence.

4. Take turns.

As your child grows older, they can start reading to you sometimes. Even when they're small, they can point out pictures and describe them. 

Other Tips

1. Give gentle feedback.

Children are bound to make some interesting guesses as they're learning about pronunciation and grammar. To guide them without discouraging them, try repeating back the corrected version of what they said while praising them for their efforts.

2. Plan field trips.

Bring language to life by visiting places where your children can see what they're learning about. Attend special exhibitions at art and science museums and check the calendars for hands-on family activities. Visit amusement parks, state fairs, and toy stores.

3. Limit electronics.

Many experts recommend no screen time for children under 2, and limited hours at any age. While some educational programming can be beneficial, interacting face-to-face- with your child builds language skills more effectively than passively watching TV.

4. See your pediatrician.

Language skills can be affected by other events in your child's life. For example, they may regress to baby talk during challenging transitions like starting kindergarten or adjusting to a divorce. Talk with your pediatrician if you have any concerns.

Help your child to succeed in school and beyond by teaching them how to express themselves and understand others. Spending time talking and reading with your child draws you closer together while you encourage their growth and development.

Learn more about helping your children build language skills here.