You don’t need special ‘language time’ built into your day to help facilitate vocabulary growth. Try these tips throughout the day and watch your child’s language blossom.
Bath Time: Bath time can be so much fun and a great place to work on language skills because you’re one on one with your child in a confined space. Focus on body parts while washing by asking “where’s your ____”. Playing with bubbles is a great way to target the word “pop”. Bath toys such as rubber animals are a fun way to model animal sounds.
Meal Time: We teach kids not to talk with their mouths full, but communicating during meal time (or snack time) is a great way to target some early words. You can model some early sounds like “mmmm” or exclamatory words like “yummy” while rubbing your belly. Hold the snack out of reach so your child has to request. For children who have words, give choices. “Do you want __ or __?” Give small pieces so your child is motivated to ask for “more”. Talk about the foods you’re are eating using short phrases such as “I love to eat __”. “You like __”. “Let’s have more __”.
Brushing Teeth: Brushing your teeth is a great time to develop some social routines. Make funny faces with your child in the mirror. If they’re not developmentally ready to copy you, you copy them! Make it a game. Include some silly music or dancing. For older kids, target positional words like “up” and “down”, “back” and “forth”. Talk about how the toothpaste tastes.
Be creative. Create routines that occur daily in your child’s life. And as always, be consistent, model, and have fun!
Talk soon, Kim
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