Outline Ways to Help Children to Develop Communication and Language Skills Essay

Parents play a critical role in a child’s language and communication development. It is thought that children who are read to and spoken with during early childhood, will have a larger vocabulary and better grammar than those who aren’t. There are different ways in using language. Verbal ways are to question, clarify, describe, explain and debate. There are also non-verbal ways to communicate like listening, looking and touching. There are many ways to nurture your childs language and communication development. Being able to communicate and express ones self can build self confidence, self esteem and the knowing of ones self and surroundings Talking to your child, tell your child what is going to happen for example, â€Å"Now we’re going to take a bath. When you get dry, we’ll get dressed.† Reading. Parents can start with simple board books and progress to picture books and longer stories as their child gets older. Story times where they can use their imagination and have an input in the stories are also effective. Follow your child’s lead. Repeat there babbles and laughs back to them, ask questions and interact with them. If the child seems interested in a picture in a book, by talking about it and discussing it, this helps the child to develop an interest. Music. Young children love music and dance. When they listen to lively songs or rhymes they learn about the world around them and the rhythm of language. This can help the child learn to thread words together to form sentences. Repeat their statements back to them with the correct pronunciation or word usage. Give your child lots of praise for their efforts. Try not to pressure or expect to much from your child as this can discourage them in exceeding. Television and computers can influence speech and communication. Some educational programs can be beneficial to kids but tv shows don’t interact or respond to children. Computer games are interactive, but they aren’t changeable to a child’s ideas. Go on days out. A visit to the zoo, the aquarium or a museum will open up a whole new world. They may even want to learn the names of all the creatures and activities they experienced Role play. Role play is great for expanding your child’s imagination and introducing new vocabulary. Games involving different characters will allow you to introduce lots of new related language and stretch your child’s creative play skills. Pretending to be a firemen putting a fire out can introduce many relating words fire, fireman, fire engine, ladder, water, hose, burning, building, driving, climbing, up, down, smoke, hat, boots, jackets, save, squirt, bucket, fire out, hero, etc. Role play with others encourages the sharing of ideas and opinions.