Counting is a great example of a verbal routine you can share with your child, that helps them learn familiar sound sequences, and get started on the path to language and number skills.
Pick something you can see and get counting together! You can count the number of fingers on your child’s hands, the delicious-looking apples in the kitchen, or even the steps you take as you walk to your car! You could even try doing it in the different languages that you know.
Click here to find out more about counting with children!
Whether you’re making food for your baby, folding laundry, or anything else that you do around your child, describe it! After all, your child is interested in you, and what you’re doing—make things interesting by creating simple, silly rhymes, or use a funny voice as if you’re narrating a movie trailer.
Describing what you are doing as part of your day-to-day routine is a great was to enrich your speech with your little-one by providing more opportunities to talk together.
Click here to find out more about narrating!
You can use your child’s attention to guide what you can talk about – this shines a kind of spotlight on whatever has captured their attention – a great way to enrich your speech with your child.
Children are always curious about everything that’s around them. Why not take this opportunity to describe the things that they see? For example, if your baby is looking at Daddy’s socks, you can point to it and say things like, “It’s a pair of blue socks! Look at how big they are!” Following the focus of your baby’s attention and explaining what they were looking at may help them understand more about their surroundings.
Click here to find out more about joint attention.
“I wonder where the birds are flying off to.”
Talk with your child using “I wonder”! Talking about things we can’t see or don’t know is an important skill that takes a while to develop but letting them hear as we talk about them may help in the future.
“Wonder” is an example of a mental state verb.
Click here to find out more about them!
Some of the first words babies learn to say are sound words like meow and beep, also known as ‘onomatopoeia’. Sharing sound words is a way to enrich the speech your child hears with fun interactions.
Sound words are some of the earliest words that babies say—and they’re great fun! Some of these sound words become real words that everyone knows while others are made up on the spot. For example, you can make up sounds that you encounter every day, like the sound of your aircon or even when you flush the toilet!
Click here to find out more about sounds and how they might help with your child’s language development.
Singing is a way that you can enrich the language your child hears, by sharing familiar vocal routines, and linking them to actions.
Songs like “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” help children learn body parts in a fun way and also gets them moving. You can sing it fast or slow, loudly or quietly, and maybe in different languages! When you ride a bus, you can sing “The wheels on the bus go round and round”. You can also change it up by saying “car” or “taxi” to change things up a little!
Click here to find out more about singing and song suggestions.
When we play tickling games, we usually tickle their tummy, their feet, their neck, etc. What about tickling their elbow, their fingers, or even their ears? That way, you also get to share with them the names of their different body parts! Don’t like tickling? You can swap a tickle for a light touch!
Click here to find out more about how tickling can be fun in more ways than one!
Books are a great way to enrich your talk with your little one. Book time can also help develop a healthy love of books, and start your child on the path to valuable pre-reading skills.
Books are a chance to talk about things your child may not see every day. Even if your baby is too little to understand, it’s a great chance for you to spend time together and gives you something fun to talk about while you do it!
Click here to find out more about the different types of books you can share with your child.
Parent-child talk is an opportunity for bonding and developing your child’s language skills. Many speech scientists believe that engaging in more talk with your children helps them build strong foundations for language. We created a special talk wheel to help parents have more fun talking to their baby! By playing our spin-the-wheel game, you can increase the amount of time you spend talking with your baby, and the number of different ways you talk with your baby.
Did you know… You can install the Talk Wheel as a shortcut on your phone! Click for instructions.
Click here to find out more about studies you and your child can participate in!
At the Brain, Language, and Intersensory Perception Lab (BLIP), we’re curious about how babies learn and how language links to our five (and more) senses. Join us on our journey to discovering some really exciting things! Sign up with us here or let us know if you have any questions about the work that we do.