
Learning to speak is a gradual process that, like many skills, takes time, practice, and a few steps before reaching the result. For example, children must first sit up, crawl, stand, then hobble when learning to walk. Likewise, talking has a few foundational skills children need to work through and master before using words, singing, and telling stories.
Here are a few foundational skills that assist children in learning to speak.
Joint attention is a skill that babies can develop at just a few months old. Joint attention refers to when two individuals are both looking or focused on the same thing. Examples of joint attention include shared eye contact, physical touch, and vocalizations. Joint attention is developed through interaction and play. Easy ways to practice this skill involve blowing and popping bubbles, rolling a ball, tickle time, and using interactive toys.
Joint Action Routines refer to early play and social routines in which children are provided cues to acquire new responses or use accepted answers appropriately. Think of this type of play as a cause and effect.
Examples of this include:
Playing Peak-a-boo.
Cueing a child to roll a car with the phrase "ready set go."
When a baby drops a toy and waits for the parent to pick it up.
Building a block tower and having the child knock it down.
Early Word Comprehension is necessary before a child can speak and say words independently. How can we use words if we don't know what they mean? Exposure is the best way to teach your child words they see and are likely to use every day. You can support them by pointing to and labeling objects such as preferred foods, stuffed animals, and reading books. Labeling everyday items is key to building your child's vocabulary at the early stages of development. In addition to labeling objects, giving your child simple directions to follow, such as "Give me the Ball," allows them to build their comprehension skills and increase generalization.
Babbling is an early stage of communication. Babies begin with coos around four months old then transition between different phases. Babbling consists of single-syllable speech sounds (ba, da, ma), repeating the same syllable (ba-ba, na-na), and mixing different sounds. In addition, babbling establishes early communicative intent, such as producing a specific sound when a child wants milk. Babbling can be supported by making environmental sounds such as animal noises (moo) when playing with your child or repeating the sounds your baby produces.
Imitation is simply copying what someone sees or hears. Children imitate gestures, movements, and sounds before they imitate speech. Children first learn to imitate actions such as clapping or grabbing a preferred toy, then facial expressions, and eventually words. Imitate your child's movements and have them practice imitating yours to help facilitate speech imitation.
Language development looks different for every child. Working on these foundational skills is a great place to start. Language exposure through play is one of our most recommended ways for children to learn.
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