Children have no sense of language when they come out of their mother’s womb. It’s their upbringing, surroundings, and human interactions that help them recognize language and adapt to it. Language development is crucial, because it helps children communicate with in ways that are meaningful. From a very young age, children start picking up directions and […]

Children have no sense of language when they come out of their mother’s womb. It’s their upbringing, surroundings, and human interactions that help them recognize language and adapt to it.

Language development is crucial, because it helps children communicate with in ways that are meaningful. From a very young age, children start picking up directions and relate to the people they’re surrounded by; all with the help of the language they’re taught.

Language development goes far beyond just the parents’ involvement. How your child understands and interprets words also depends on what language skills they’re taught at their school or child development center.

Let’s see how you can foster better language development in your child:

Read aloud!

Most people read to their children, even when they’re infants. This establishes it as a habit that they’re likely to carry on with as they grow older.

For children who are old enough to understand words and make sense of them, bedtime reading adds to their vocabulary. They pick up words and phrases and are likely to memorize them if the story is engaging. Start with picture books and point out what each picture means. This way, your child will be able to name an ‘apple,’ for example, when they see one in real life.

Other than language development, stories go a long way in fostering a child’s emotional development. Choose stories that talk about kindness, empathy, and being a good person. Stories that glorify characters that are kind make the child want to imitate the behavior. They also help them develop their imagination.

Play rhyming games!

One of the easiest ways to familiarize your child with new words is to make them call out words that are similar to the ones they already know—in short, play a rhyming game with them!

Make a playful activity out of it and integrate it with your everyday chores. This activity is suited to children who are old enough to speak. For instance, while you’re giving your little one a bath, ask them to say a word that rhymes with rat. This compels them to critically think and memorize words that they weren’t aware of before.

An even better and fun way of doing so is to introduce the child to nursery rhymes. This inculcates greater phonetic awareness and word constituents.

The Role of a daycare center

Before choosing a child development facility for your little one, make sure it focuses on language and literary skills just as much as it does on caretaking. The daycare center of your child should ideally foster interactive learning.

When a child steps out of the comfort of their home for the first time and is put in the company of the strangers, they pick up on new words and more diverse speaking styles. Always take a good look at the curriculum of the daycare center and see whether they have exercises that foster language development and promote learning.

Daycare plays just an important part in the child’s upbringing as regular schooling does. Based in Lenexa, The Whole Child Development Center provides an inclusive learning environment for kids of all ages. Contact us now to learn more.

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