In the early years, a child’s brain is growing and developing important new connections. 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.
You can use spotlight with children of any age!
When your little one is learning about the sounds of their languages, your voice provides a great chance for them to learn. Most parents use a fun sing-song voice when chatting with their infants, known as ‘parentese’. Babies like to listen to this speaking style, and it may even help them to learn effectively.
While your little-one is still learning to talk, it can be tricky to find things to talk about. Using their attention as a cue is a great way to stimulate more talking in your interactions, and give your little-one more opportunities to learn.
With their growing word knowledge, using your toddler’s attention to guide what you talk about is a great way to help them form links between words and the world. You can describe their toys, things around the house, or what they can see out the window. You can even talk with your toddler about videos or onscreen games.
As your little-one develops more complex understanding of language, talking about what they are interested in is a great way to stimulate meaningful talk time together. You can boost the interactivity by asking questions, following their lead, and adding details.
Goals. When turning a spotlight on your child’s attention, you might find yourself talking about all sorts of unusual things, from a rug, or a beetle, or the way a certain cloth feels. Since every conversation is an opportunity for learning about language, using their attention as a spotlight can help to enrich your speech with your little-one, by talking more, and by talking about different things.
How does it work? Babies and toddlers need to hear a lot of spoken language before they can figure out the sounds, the words and the structures in the languages they hear at home. Many scientists now agree that toddlers who hear more speech, and a wider variety of words are faster to recognize the meanings of words, and have larger vocabularies. You can increase your opportunities for talk by putting a spotlight on whatever your child is looking at, playing with, or paying attention to. For example, you can watch TV together and talk about what you see, or join in your child’s play and describe the objects you are interacting with. Every conversation is an opportunity for learning.
Key point. You don’t have to focus on teaching your child particular words in this activity. Instead, use spotlight as a chance to trigger new interactions, and talk about unusual things. It’s another way to enjoy each other’s company while interacting.
Multilingual insights. You can use spotlight in any language! Some families use one language when they talk about certain things, and different languages when they talk about others. Other families use one language all the time, or a mix of their languages. By using your child’s attention to guide what you talk about, there are more chances to enrich the talk they hear in whatever language that works for your family.
Read more about contingent talk:
http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/Build-Your-Baby-s-Understanding–Match-What-You-Sa.aspx
Read the Science:
Suarez-Rivera, C., Smith, L. B., & Yu, C. (2019). Multimodal parent behaviors within joint attention support sustained attention in infants. Developmental psychology, 55(1), 96. FREE ACCESS LINK: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6296904/