Tips


Play Face to Face with your child. 

Get down to their level, this might mean you are sat or lying on the floor. Get in a position where your child can see your eyes and your face. 



Follow your Child’s lead in play 
Watch what your child is doing or playing with and then join in with their play. This works so well because children love it when we join in with their play. 
Wait, look and listen for their communication – this may be a point, handing you something, a noise or a word
Add a word to match their communication 
So if your child hands you a brick you can say “ brick! And copy what they are doing with the bricks” 


Taking turns 
When you're playing , taking turns is a really good skill to have. So taking turns to race a car , taking turns to put a block on a tower or to blow bubbles, or to carry on singing a song you can take turns in lots of games. 
Your child could take a turn by smiling , looking at you or making a noise. 
Turn taking in play is the start of children being able to take part in a conversation, when we talk we often take turns to talk and listen. That is why this tip is so important 



Use simple language 
Name any object that your child is looking at ,pointing to , holding, playing with . Like this: bubbles, brick , TV. 
You can also name things your child is doing e.g. running jumping swimming
Use lots of repetition , so every time you have the chance use the word as much as you can. 
Remember to use the same word for the object each time, e.g. sofa or settee, trousers or pants, lunch or dinner 
Remember to focus on the actual object and not its colour or how many there are 
This is so important because children learn new words when we tell them the name.

Turn your questions into comments 

We ask children so many questions, and sometimes we need to. But when your playing with your child see if you can turn those questions into comments because this will help them learn language. 
So instead of saying what is that what have you got there you can say “ ooh bus beep beep, you have a bus!”  or “ do you like your juice?” “ mmm yummy juice”  “ what’s that is it a plane?” “ wow a plane!” 
Questions are testing children, but comments help them learn because they hear the words. 


Add on words 
If the child says ‘teddy’ then the adult can add ‘teddy jump’
If the child says ‘teddy jump’ then the adult can say ‘teddy is jumping on the bed’
Keep adding on words to what your child has said – if they say one word (e.g. ‘more’), model back two words (e.g. ‘more milk’)
We can add lots of different words action words (sleep, jump, run, build ) 
If your child is using 2 or 3 word phrases, add describing words e.g. big/little, hot/cold etc. 


Use things the child can see
We all understand things more when we can see things, that's why packets and tins in the supermarket have words and pictures on, why we have road signs with symbols and why we and love watching tv. 
Children will learn best when they see and hear a word at the same time. If we point to or show them object or pictures at the same time as speaking they will learn language much quicker. Doing this can also help them to understand us so for example if you want your child to bring you their cup, show them a picture of a cup or point to the cup when you ask to give them a clue. 


Last modified: Thursday, 16 April 2020, 2:22 PM