What level of language should I use with my child?

Use the words that children understand as the basis for conversation. Pushing a child too far beyond the current level of capability doesn't work. If your child is using single words, use two word combinations e.g. Your child says ‘dog,' you can respond by saying ‘big dog,' or  ‘dog bark.'

In helping your child develop language, the idea is to be one level ahead in order to extend your child's language. If your child says ‘I  see  fish,' you respond with, ‘Wow, it's a big fish.' (You have added another element by using the descriptive word ‘big'. You could have said ‘it's an orange fish.')

Do not overwhelm your child with all your knowledge and miss the opportunity your child needs to experiment with language. Remember, language is for communicating. Give your child the opportunity to take turns and develop normal conversation. Don't hog the conversation.

Attention & Listening

Attention and Listening are essential skills for pre-school and school age children. It's easy to forget attention and listening skills need to be taught to children from an early age. The games below are a fun way to teach these really important skills.

All of these games are suitable for at least 2 people to play. Involving the whole family (including adults) makes it really fun and the children don't even realise they are learning.

Children really enjoy it when the adult makes a ‘mistake'. You can occasionally make a mistake on purpose and then encourage your child to correct you. This is a great learning opportunity for them when they correct you, it makes it more fun for them and makes them feel better that adults make mistakes just like them.

Sitting

Both in Kindergartens and school, and at Speech Therapy, children are required to sit still on both chairs and on the floor. If your child is moving on their chair, slouching in their chair or moving around on the floor; it will be hard for them to listen to what is being said. For them to be able to learn and follow instructions they need to be doing good sitting.

SO what do we mean by good sitting? There are two main places where your children will sit; on the floor and on a chair. Good sitting on a chair is when feet are flat on the floor, bottom at the back of the chair and back is straight back against the back of the chair. Good sitting on the floor is when legs are crossed, bottom flat on the floor and hands are in the lap.

In both of these games, your occasional ‘mistake' can be to do "bad sitting" (e.g. slouching or stretching your legs out). Remember to encourage your child to tell you if you are doing good sitting.

Both of these games can be for sitting on a chair and for sitting on the floor.

Sitting Detective - One child is picked to be the ‘detective' and sent out of the room. One person is then chosen to be the "bad sitter" (e.g. slouching on a chair or uncrossed their legs on the floor). The ‘detective' then comes in and has to look at everyone and see who the "bad sitter'" is Everyone else has to be doing good sitting or how will the detective know? When playing with just two people, the person left can sometimes do "bad sitting."

Musical sitting - Same idea as musical bumps, instead of "bumping" you do good sitting. Play music and the children dance or walk around. When the music stops, you have to do "good sitting" on either the floor or a chair. You can either have "bad sitters" sitting out or it can be used as a practice.

Looking at the person's eyes (Eye Contact)

How do you know when someone is listening to you? You don't have to think about it, but you usually know someone is listening to you when they are looking at your face.

It is difficult to teach looking as there is not a fixed rule. When we are talking to people, we don't always look at their face the whole time. Some people would consider that to be staring, and, it could be perceived as rude. However, when somebody is giving you instructions or you are learning something, you tend to look people in the eye.

Again, make the occasional mistake to give your child the opportunity to say "you're not doing good looking, you need to be looking at my eyes!"

Throw the Smile - Sit in a circle (if more than 2 people) or opposite each other (if 2 people). One person starts with the smile. They then move their hand across their mouth and pretend to "take off" the smile. The children have to be looking at the person's eyes, then the leader can pretend to throw the smile to a child who is looking at them. The child then puts the smile on their face, and looks to see who is looking at them. They can then throw the smile.

Mirror - choose 2 people to play this game and get them to sit opposite each other.  One person is the "actor" and one is the mirror. The "actor" pulls a funny face & the "mirror" copies. Some ideas are opening your mouth wide, sticking your tongue, making a happy face or sad face. Be creative and have fun!

Looking at the person's whole body

Sometimes your child will need to look at a person's whole body, for example when their teacher is demonstrating a craft activity to them.

Pass the Action - Sit in a circle or opposite each other (if there are 2 people). Choose a leader and everyone must look at the leader. The leader starts by doing one action (e.g. clapping twice, touching your feet, putting your hands on your head). Then the person to the left copies the action, then the person next to them copies the action. They have to be looking at the person's body to get the right action! If the children get really good at copying one action, you could try combining 2 or even 3 actions!

Dance star - Choose a leader. Start playing music and everybody dances. When the music stops the leader carries on dancing. Everyone must look at the leader and copy their dancer. You can prompt by saying "who are we looking at?" and "do the same as them".

Hands still

To help your child listen, they need to learn to keep their hands still. If you are moving your hands around a lot when someone is telling you something, it is definitely harder to listen to what they are saying.  If they are moving their hands around, it will distract them from what their teacher or you are saying.

So what do we mean by hands still. We don't mean hands must be totally still, but not moving around too much. To help children do this, encourage them to put their hands in their laps or on their knees.

Musical hands - Sit the children on the floor or on chairs in a circle or opposite each other (an opportunity to practice good sitting as well!). Play some of their favourite music. Whilst the music is playing, they can move their hands around as much as they like. When the music stops, they must keep their hands still (in their laps or on their knees).

Listening to instructions

Obviously part of listening is actually listening to what the other person is saying. All of the other things will help your child to be able to listen to instructions or when you are teaching them.

Teacher - Give your child one instruction and they must copy it, make it as fun as you can e.g. jump up & down, stick your tongue out & pretend to be a cat. To help them remember the instruction, ask them to repeat the instruction back to you. Give short instructions without too many words as the more words, the harder it is. When they are really good at following one thing, give them two (clap your hands, turn around) or even three (sit down, close your eyes, clap). They must be doing good listening to remember all of the instructions.

They can give you instructions and occasionally you can get it wrong. Encourage them to correct you and tell you what to do.

Traffic Lights - Children are running or walking around. You shout red, green or amber. Red means stop, green means go and amber means slow down. They may need reminders and learning time about what the colours mean. To help them remember, they can repeat back to you what you said.  They must be doing good listening or they won't get it right! You can play and occasionally you can get it wrong (e.g. of they said red you can could run for green). Encourage them to tell you that you made a mistake and encourage you to do good listening.

Action words (verbs)

Action words are a really important part of your child's language. When a child learns action words they start to ask you for things e.g. "Pick up." Mummy sit." Or they can tell you about what they see e.g. "Dog run!"

Your child will first learn to understand action words before they say them. So, for example if you ask your child to "walk," they may be able to walk. However, if you asked them to tell you what you were doing ("you were walking"), they might not be able to do this.

These fun, quick activities will help you child learn what the action words are and then you can practice saying them together in a fun game.

Busy Teddy - Get your child's teddy (or another toy they like), and some toys or objects such as a cup, spoon, fork, hair brush, toothbrush and flannel. Explain that teddy is going to be very busy. Explain that you will do some things with teddy first, then you are going to help your child do some things with teddy. You can start with making teddy walk and as he is walking say, "Teddy is walking." You can then make him run, jump or sit down. Every time you do an action say simply and clearly what teddy is doing.

Involve your child by making the teddy walk around your child, or jump onto their shoulders etc. Teddy can then have a drink (cup to the mouth), eat, etc. With every action, clearly say "Teddy is drinking." Or "Teddy is eating."  After you have gone through the actions, your child can then have their turn. They can make the teddy do different actions, whilst you say what your child is making the teddy do e.g. "Teddy is brushing his teeth."

This is the way we... - This game involves singing to the tune of ‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush.' Think of every day actions, and as you sing can act them out. Children enjoy singing and learning through songs. It's fun! This is a way to teach your child the link between verbs and objects e.g. sitting on a chair, eating food, drinking juice etc. Some examples are:

"This is the way we sit on our chair, sit on our chair, sit on our chair, This is the way we sit on a chair when we are working."

"This is the way we eat our dinner, eat our dinner, eat our dinner, This is the way we eat our dinner with a knife and fork."

"This is the way we wash our face, wash our face, wash our face, This is the way we wash our face, with a flannel and soap."

"This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth, This is the way we brush our teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste."