Tips For Encouraging the Development of New Words Through Everyday Activities

I have recently written a post entitled Tips To Help Your Child Learn New Words that provides you with a list of general things you should be doing to indirectly enhance your child's language learning. Here, I'd like to provide you with specific words and concepts that you can add into your daily routine with your toddler that will enhance the development of new words and overall language development.

What is important to understand is that even if you have a toddler with a language delay, you don't have to make extra time throughout your day to enhance and work on language development and language learning. This should be incorporated into everyday activities such as meal time, bath time, getting dressed and even play time. Incorporating language learning in this way enhances meaning and context which are both incredibly important for your child to learn new words and concepts.

More on Using Everyday Activities To Enhance Language Development

Language learning is an ongoing process that occurs all day long during everyday activities and especially during play. When you get at your child's level and "play", you're enhancing language and communication skills in a very indirect kind of way. Even when your child is an infant and you play little repetitive and imitative games with her you are enhancing her communication skills. I found an article on TalkAboutSpeech.com that describes this kind of interaction very well.

With a child who is developing language more slowly than his peers there are some things you want to keep in mind during your playtime with him.

More on Learning Language Through Play

This is an incredible story of a 17 month old baby who can read! This first aired on March 10th on the Today Show. Signing Time family Katy & Michael Barrett shared their experience with their daughter, Elizabeth, learning to read when she was just 13-months old. They contribute a large part of this to introducing her at a very young age to Signing Time. Both parents are speech/language pathologists and started teaching her sign language along with spoken language when she was very young.

What is Signing Time? Check it out for yourself!

They, like most parents, read to her often (but never taught her how to read). The only television she watches is a Signing Time DVD which teaches kids sign language. Sign language is of course a visual language system and I think the act of learning sign language must enhance an individuals visual perception and visual memory skills. These skills are necessary for reading. I completely agree with Katy and Michael Barret that there must be a coorelation between their daughter being taught sign language by her parents and by watching these Signing Time DVD's from a very young age to her extraordinary reading abilities at only 17 months old!

Check out this Video!!