Families logo

How To Support Your Child’s Speech, Language and Communication Development

I used to work in a nursery, and this is the information we give out to parents of young children.

By Rebecca SmithPublished 4 years ago 5 min read
7

This will act as a working plan of how you can help your child’s speech, language and communication development.

Children’s Communication Development Needs, 0-8 (and activities used to aid development):

- BIRTH—12 MONTHS:

Babies will start to interact with adults by looking and listening. They will begin to vocalise by gurgling.

From 6months, babies will understand key voices and simple language—like their own name. They will begin making sounds and cooing to themselves.

Activities -

1) Teaching the child intimate actions – clapping hands, playing peek-a-boo, etc. This will help your child to communicate through actions and help them begin to understand the art of communication.

2) Count Items. This will begin to form the basis of your child learning simple mathematic skills.

3) Reading to the child. This will help stimulate your child’s interest and help them to begin to understand how words are formed. Their interest in books will help their literacy skills in the future.

- 1-3 YEARS:

Children will now be able to understand simple instructions when said using gestures, like pointing at a toy whilst saying “play with this.” They can identify a few objects now too.

By the time they are two, they will have a 200 word vocabulary and will often talk to themselves; naming objects along the way.

Activities -

1) Use good speech that is clear and simple. Using simple language will help your child understand things. They will begin to follow instructions. This can be built upon as they grow.

2) Make a scrapbook of favourite of familiar things. This will be a good resource that your child can look at whenever they want. They will begin to recognise people and be able to name them. For example, “mummy… daddy…. Nanny…”

3) Ask simple questions that require choice. This will make your child begin to think about the responses they give. Also, giving a choice encourages communication with your child.

- 3-5 YEARS:

Children will become more aware of their own thoughts and will count and remember songs by coping what their friends or carers say/do.

By the age of around 4, children will be able to talk with some fluency and have a larger vocabulary—which will allow them to use tenses

Activities -

1) When the child starts a conversation, we give them our full attention. This interaction will aid your child’s knowledge and confidence in their interests as they discuss it with you. They may learn new words which will aid development.

2) Continue to build vocabulary. Building vocabulary will help your child have much better communication skills, as they’ll be able to hold a number of conversations with different people.

3) Begin to introduce two and three step instructions. This will encourage your child to use their listening skills and process what they are being told to do. This will gradually be built upon as they develop.

- 5-8 YEARS:

Children are likely to be fluent speakers at this age, with good grammar and the thinking skills to organise their language accordingly. They will be interested in role-playing familiar stories to them and be able to read and recognise their own name.

Activities -

1) Work on forming and explaining categories. This will create many more communication opportunities for your child. Their speech will develop as they have to cope with more complex sentences and more ideas in what they are discussing.

2) Use complex sentences and help the children to expand theirs. This will once again build on how your child communicates. They will learn the correct way to communicate and their functional skills.

3) Discuss the size of everyday items and ask the child to collect specific items. This will build on your child’s vocabulary and help them extend their knowledge and conversations.

Systematic Synthetic Phonics

Once your child reaches the appropriate age, I will begin to use Synthetic phonics. This is an approach associated with the teaching of reading in which sounds associated with particular letters, are pronounced in isolation and blended together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words.

For example, children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as cat apart, into its three letters, pronounce a sound for each letter ‘ka ah t’ and blend the phonemes together to form a word.

Using this method to teach reading to children will enable them to learn to reader quicker and be ready for reading within a primary school by the time it is necessary.

This can be applied in the home environment. Not only with books, but everyday objects. Maybe when cooking the child a meal; reading out the names of ingredients.

Identifying Children With Difficulties In Speech, Language and Communication

Difficulties with play, social interactions and relationships, literacy, behaviour, confidence and self esteem may all indicate a child has difficulty with his/her speech, language and communication. If at any stage I am concerned that your child may have a speech delay, I shall check to see if the child is at the stage that would be expected for their age. If they are not at that stage, I shall check to see where they are. If your child does have a delay, I will be happy to show you the next course of action that I think would benefit your child.

One thing I would do would be Spend a lot of time communicating with the child. Also, reading to the child and using everyday situations to encourage them to try and talk. I shall observe your child, and see if they trying to communicate or whether they just cannot talk, and plan activities to help them – especially if it is a confidence issue. If the concern continues, you may need to refer your child to a Speech-Language Pathologists.

Activity Plan

Here is an activity plan that you should aim to use on a weekly basis.

advice
7

About the Creator

Rebecca Smith

She/Her

Just be f*cking nice 🙌

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

Rebecca Smith is not accepting comments at the moment

Want to show your support? Send them a one-off tip.

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.