Parents play a crucial role in teaching their children about life and fostering a better living environment, especially when their child faces challenges in communication. Recognizing your child’s needs is essential and a speech therapist can provide valuable insight into their speech and language development, along with the suggestion of home-based activities.
Here are some fundamental guidelines to assist you in teaching your child:
1. Express love through touches, hugs, kisses, kind words and reassuring smiles to create asense of calm and confidence in your child. Using a happy tone in your voice reinforces
feelings of love and acceptance, making your child more receptive to learning.
2. Understand your child’s age-appropriate language skills to align your expectations accordingly. Consult with the speech therapist to set realistic demands that neither overwhelm nor underestimate your child.
3. Encourage and appreciate your child’s learning achievements. Compliments motivate continued learning, while criticism can lead to frustration. Accept your child’s mistakes and emphasize that every child is unique, embracing both strengths and weaknesses.
4. Spend time engaging in daily activities with your child, turning routine tasks into learning opportunities. Your child values your time and attention, contributing to a sense of importance and connection.
5. Make learning enjoyable by having fun activities together. Play and explore activities that interest both you and your child. The enjoyment you experience reflects on your child’s engagement, making learning a positive experience.
6. Demonstrate active listening by getting down to your child’s eye level, maintaining eye contact, and responding to their thoughts. This communicates genuine care for your child’s thoughts and feelings. Ensure your child has ample opportunities to express themselves.
7. Talk to your child, even if it seems that they don’t grasp it immediately. Frequently discuss your shared activities and allow your child sufficient time to respond.
Focus on the present moment: This aids children in comprehending when you discuss objects, people, and events that they can observe, hear and touch. Therefore, talk about ongoing events simultaneously. For instance, state, “I’m placing the ball in the box” as you perform the action. Identify visible objects for the child: “A puppy! Look at the little dog!” Discuss individuals in your vicinity: “Look at the policeman. He can help us.” Engage in discussions about what genially captures your child’s interest: assist your child in honing their listening skills by conversing about subjects that fascinate them. For example, if your child is playing with bricks on the floor, seize the opportunity to say “These are big bricks. This one is red.” Keep in mind that your child’s interests may differ from yours. Children explore and learn about the world, finding ordinary objects such as jugs, boxes, and stones fascinating.
Narrate your actions out loud: Anytime you’re with your child, consider it a language lesson. Transform your thoughts and activities into spoken words to teach your child language. Utilize simple sentences and expressions that are similar, yet slightly more complex than those your child uses to describe what you’re doing, seeing, or thinking. For instance, if your child is 3-4 years old, when baking a cake, say: “I am putting the eggs in. Now, I mix in the butter (I go around it). It needs more flour. I’ll add some more.” Speak at a slower pace: Children encountering language learning challenges often struggle with fast-paced speech. Slowing down your speech will enhance your child’s understanding. Of course, this doesn’t mean speaking like a broken record! Even a slight adjustment in your speech rate can aid your child’s language comprehension. Utilize repetition: When you repeat words, phrases and sentences, your child is more likely to learn and understand. Therefore, if your child is 2 or 2-6 years old, consider the following conversation:
Child: Doll.
Parent: Maria’s doll.
Parent: Your doll is beautiful.
Parent: I like your doll.
These interactions demonstrate the extent to which you can enhance your child’s language skills. In the conversation above, you have crafted various sentence structures, introducing new information and vocabulary with each iteration. Nevertheless, there is a consistent reinforcement and repetition of the fundamental message received by the child. Emphasize important words with your voice: Children learn to respond to variations in people’s voices. Your child will pay closer attention to the words you emphasize while speaking. Therefore, place more emphasis on the word or words you want your child to hear and remember.
For instance:
“Big dog!”
“The juice is out!”
“You are a good guy!”
You can also modify the tone or inflection of your voice to aid your child comprehend the message’s meaning. Voice modulation involves altering the volume and pitch of your voice, whether it’s high or low. These alterations can highlight a word and underscore the distinction between questions and statements. Incorporate facial expressions and gestures into your speech: Using expressions and gestures assists your child in grasping the meaning of the message you are expressing.
Natural expressions and gestures you can use include:
1. Facial expressions – expressions that convey surprise, excitement, joy, sadness, anger,
interest, etc.
2. Hand gestures – Come here. Give it to me. I want. You want. Stop it. Let’s start, etc.
3. Body postures – Arms open indicating embrace. Hands crossed on chest indicating
anger.
In some instances, speak for your child: Your child can think before expressing those thoughts. You can assist by occasionally verbalizing your child’s thoughts instead of waiting for them to do so. By doing this, you provide your child with words and sentences that they can recall and use in the future. At times, you may need to make educated guesses about what the child is thinking. For example, if your child is playing with a car, you can say: “This is a big car. Make it move. It’s going very fast. This is a small car. This one can go forward too.” Don’t ask the child to repeat what you say: What’s important is to demonstrate good language
patterns. Your child will learn without the need for repetition or correction of mistakes. Over time, your child will naturally acquire the ability to express themselves, mirroring your language patterns – free from pressure and in their own unique way. Your role as a parent serves as the initial catalyst for the development of language and communication skills, complementing your child’s inherent potential. Making language learning enjoyable can be achieved through simple everyday activities and play. Instead of being a strict judge, be a supportive guide for your child, fostering initiative in imaginative play, language expression, and generalization at home.
