Tips for Developing Language

You’ll find below tips for activities and games that support the developing of language in children.

The water tray activity is one way to meet them at their stage of development and move them from individual play (on their own, seeming uninterested in others), to parallel play and eventually collaborative play.

The water tray is great because most kids enjoy the tipping, the pouring, the splashing and will do individual separate play. Jugs, sieves and funnels are enough toys to start with.

We recommend being outdoors and hope you don’t mind getting wet.

So how do we begin to engage them in more parallel play?

The first goal is shared attention. Join them in the water tray and do whatever they are doing. They will start watching to see what you do and sometimes copying your activity, especially if you come up with something interesting. You can sometimes copy them.

Move to gentle splashing.Then take an opportunity if they splash to jump and seem surprised. Don’t be loud, as that might startle them, but it helps if you’re dramatic – act surprised and amused, not cross.

Usually they notice and do it again.

Don’t get upset. This is exactly your goal. You splash, they splash, you jump, you’re surprised.

Don’t splash back yet. Wait until you’ve established that they are looking for a response from you. Then very gently splash back.

Sometimes keep your eyes closed and wait for them to splash.

From there you can move to the next step: One of you holds a pot and the other pours something in. One of you holds the funnel and the other gathers the water. Introduce toy animals and splash them or pour water over them. At this point start talking about what is happening. Don’t demand a response but if you get any language, even unintelligible, recognise and respect it.

See whether you can move your child from individual separate play through parallel play to collaborative play. That’s the very beginning of communication.

This activity is, by the way, also really helpful for getting children who don’t speak the same language as you to start interacting and engaging.

Time with your children is so precious. They learn their language from you. They learn how to talk. They learn their place in the world. They learn to value their achievements. They learn from you.

When you find time to explore with your child, outdoors, indoors, making, doing and playing together, you’re giving them quality time they need.

This tip can help them develop their language even if they are struggling, while supporting their self esteem.

Here’s an activity you can do for two-three minutes at a time (really, not all the time).

Have you ever watched a sports commentator talking about how the athlete is doing, praising their moves, commenting on their skills, and commenting on their successes and achievements?

Children love that too.

Johnny’s hitting a nail with a hammer.

He’s so tall.

He’s so strong.

Johnny is squeezing through the gap between the branches.

He’s so clever.

He’s so careful.

Build into your commentary the words that you would like your children to grow into.

Include words like over, under, through and between to help them know where their body is in the world.

Leave out any negativity. Support them.

Even if there is only one thing they do well in the day, recognize that one thing and soon it may become two or three or four.

So to recap, explore with your child. Watch them exploring and support them by giving a running commentary.

Emphasize everything they do really, really well.

And keep it short. Keep it sweet.

Three minutes. It’s enough.

If you are very brave, ask them to do the same for you. We can all do with a bit of positive affirmation every day.

We use this very same activity to work on dexterity. It is, however, an excellent opportunity to playfully work on language.

Get a car playmat (or make one, if this is something you’d like to do). Sit with your child to play. Travel on the roads with the cars and trucks. Don’t like trucks? Take the toy animals on an expedition!

Talk about staying on the road. Talk about the things they might see. Be careful not to take over. Try to follow their lead.

You can do the same with a wooden train set that has grooves: those guide your child to stay on the track.

How might this help? It works on hand-eye coordination, on following the lines, and can provide practice for crossing midline. The general idea is to always start where your child is and work from there to where you want your child to be.

Sitting and playing with your child provides you an opportunity to talk about what it is that they are doing – even a running commentary about right and left and around and stop and go, faster and slower. All this supports language.

This one is a favorite. Use it for motor planning, organization and language development. And fun, of course.

Let’s first look at what an obstacle course is:

Whether outdoors or indoors, an obstacle course involves creating a structure for a path to climb, balance, travel over and under and through and between. You may also be in nature and using what’s there.

The most obvious benefit your child gets out of an obstacle course is a sense of where the body is and how it is used: motor planning.

And there’s more:

There’s the sequence… what they do for a start, and then… and then…

If your child participates in planning the obstacle course, then they’re developing their creativity and planning skills and organization – and yes, this practice supports other kinds of plans they may be making in the future. Check that it is safe, but let them be creative. As they grow, the course will get more intricate, perhaps more challenging.

Make it even more of a learning opportunity:

Commentate on their progress. In other words: as they go step by step, say, aloud, what it is that they are doing. “…under the table and now over the pillow… between the two chairs and behind the bed…” You are working on their literacy.

When your child is able to, have them say what they’ll be doing next.

You can add a component: an imaginary “remote control”, which you can take turns using: when one person is going through the obstacle course, the other calls out “stop”, “start”, “faster” or “slower”. This is especially useful for children who find it hard to slow down. Are they ready for “backwards”?

We often use this activity to support manual skills. We’ll start with a description of the activity and then say a few words about why it’s relevant to language development.

Important note: In the US cornflour is distinctly different from cornstarch. However, in the UK it seems cornstarch is called cornflour.

You will need:

Show your child how to mix the cornstarch and water to make a thick cream… like batter or yoghurt.

Cornstarch dough is good for getting you some peace and quiet. Try it when you want a child who’s busy-busy-busy to just stop for a minute.

It captivates their attention. It’s fun doing it with a friend and good for developing parallel play.

If you possibly can, do it outdoors. It can be messy. However, if you wait long enough it’ll dry out and then you can just sweep it or vacuum it.

Adding some toy animals promotes cooperative play and language development. Consider verbs and adjectives, which don’t often get the attention they need with language learners: “wet”, “sticky”, “pouring”, “spilling”, “blue”, “white” etc.