You are your child's best role model for speech and language development. Create a home environment where your child is encouraged to communicate. Read with your child, play word games, and talk together. These activities in a child's formative years build the foundation to help them when they enter the school system. To develop strong communication skills, young children need opportunities to experiment with language and to express themselves both verbally and non-verbally.

Make talking fun. Children learn best when the learning experience is incorporated into daily activities such as reading books, play and music. Music can be used anytime, anywhere and is one of the most transportable forms of play, all you need is you and your child.

If your child is experiencing difficulty with communication, music is one way to encourage language development. Singing songs with your child enables you to introduce new words, encourage turn taking, practice sounds, learn rhyming words, and model clear speech. Many children learn better when they get to "act out" the song or match actions to sounds and rhythm.

Songs

This Little Piggy
Baa, Baa Black Sheep

Action Songs

Shake Your Sillies Out
Head and Shoulders
Wheels on the Bus
Old McDonald Had a Farm

Rhyming Songs

Humpty, Dumpty
Down By the Bay
Five Little Monkeys
Jack and Jill

Have your child select a small toy which he/she can hold while marching around the room to music or clapping. When the music is stopped, shout out a prepositional phrase describing where the toy should be placed (i.e. under the blue chair, beside the big ball, on the colouring table.) At this point, the child runs to put the toy in the location described before the music is played again. Next time, let your child have the opportunity to instruct you on the position of the toy.

Imagination Plus Tip #5 reprinted from The Purple Giraffe Newsletter, Dr. Karen Halpern, Language Plus Toronto