Westwood Farm Pre-School
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COMMUNICATION TIPS FOR PARENTS
2 TO 3 YEARS
Read books with your child as often as you can. Talk about the pictures. Let them fill in parts of familiar stories.
Make time to listen to your child when they are telling you something. Stop what you are doing and get down to their level.
If your child’s sentence is muddled don’t correct them but repeat back to them how they could have said it.
Join in play with your child, following their lead.
Sing songs and nursery rhymes, pausing for them to fill in missing words.
Your child is still learning new words, and hearing them may times will help them to learn them quicker.
Don’t correct words that are not said correctly, as with muddled sentences just repeat back the word said with the correct sounds.
Play games that take turns such as simple pairs, lotto or catching a ball.
Restrict the amount of TV your child watches. Make sure that your child has plenty of opportunities to interact with you, the rest of the family and friends.
Talk about and involve your child in everyday situations such as shopping, cooking or cleaning. Your child will enjoy these more when they are given a role to play and are included in conversations as they happen.
COMMUNICATION TIPS FOR PARENTS
3 TO 4 YEARS
Read books with your child as often as you can. Talk about the pictures. Let them fill in parts of familiar stories. Read favourite books frequently.
Make time to listen to your child when they are telling you something. Stop what you are doing and get down to their level. Have a special time to talk about their day.
If your child’s sentence is muddled don’t correct them but repeat back to them how they could have said it.
Join in pretend play with your child, following their lead. Let them be the ‘Mum’ or ‘teacher’.
Sing songs and nursery rhymes pausing for them to fill in missing words.
Introduce games with rules such as ‘snakes and ladders’.
Your child is still learning new words and hearing them many times will help them learn them quicker.
Don’t correct words that are not said correctly, as with muddled sentences just repeat back the word said with the correct sounds.
Restrict the amount of TV your child watches. Make sure that your child has plenty of opportunities to interact with you, the rest of the family and friends.
Talk about and involve your child in everyday situations such as shopping, cooking and cleaning. Your child will enjoy these more when they are given a role to play and are included in conversations as they happen.
COMMUNICATION TIPS FOR PARENTS
4 YEARS PLUS
Continue to spend time looking at and reading books together. Talk about new words and their meanings.
Make sure you give your child time to talk, your child is trying to express more complex ideas and may need more time to respond to questions while they are getting their words sorted out before they speak.
Repeat back to your child what they said but reword it into a correct sentence rather than correcting them.
Play games with sounds and rhymes. This will help with developing reading and writing skills.
Play board games to develop listening, turn taking and following rules. These can also be good for showing examples of good social language.
Make sure you set a good example of social language by using words such as ‘please’ and ‘hello’ at appropriate times so that your child can use these words and recognise when they are needed.
Involve your child in everyday routines.
Encourage imaginative play and join in pretend games with your child.
Make sure you know what your child is learning at Pre-School and reinforce with games, books and activities at home. This will help them learn new words more easily and allow them to practice and use language associated with their learning more often.
Be aware of when you are using expressions such as ‘pull your socks up’, make sure you explain the meaning. This can be fun for children to learn at this age.
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Every Child A Talker
You play a critical role in your child’s speech, language and communication development
Every Child a Talker (ECAT) is a national project to develop the speech, language and communication of children from birth to five years of age. The project was set up after concern about the high levels of ‘language impoverishment’ in the UK, and how this affects children’s progress in school and their future chances in life.
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A child’s speech, language and communication develops in stages. Although each child may develop at a slightly different rate, children are expected to develop specific skills by a certain age.
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Ways you can help to nurture your child’s language development
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TALK TALK TALK
Use every minute of every day to narrate what is happening, share experiences and have a 2 way conversation with your child.
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READ READ READ
It’s never too early to start sharing books with your child. You could simply look at the pictures together, naming objects, discuss characters and suggest how the story may end.
ENJOYING MUSIC TOGETHER
Young children love music and movement. When they listen to and join in songs they learn about the rhythm of language.
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TELLING STORIES
Make time for role play. Create elaborate stories together with characters, conflict, adventure, and a happy ending.
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FOLLOW YOUR CHILD’S LEAD
If your child shows a particular interest talk to them about it. Repeat back babbles, words, make comments, ask questions and interact with them.
LIMIT TECHNOLOGY TIME
Although some television programmes and computer programs are educational, time spent sitting in front of technology should be limited as there is no interaction or response to the child and as such no learning of language.
FAMILY DAYS OUT
A trip to the zoo, beach, woods, museum will open up a whole new world of words and vocabulary for your child to explore.
USE OF DUMMIES
Overuse of a dummy can have an impact on the development of babbling, talking and speech sounds. There is a reduced desire to communicate with a dummy in the mouth and some young children may become less likely to seek out talking activities.
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Useful Sources of information:
A general local resource about Speech, Language & Communication development. Offering talking tips for parents
Local Speech and Language advice service offering support and advice.
Offers lots of advice on the ages and stages of Speech, Language & Communication development and resources for Parents. They also offer an enquiry line to phone if you as a parent have any concerns you wish to discuss.
Free resources are available to encourage listening, understanding, interaction & play.
An interactive progress checker is available which can be used as a guide to support your child’s Speech, Language & Communication development
Lots of useful resources for parents including Top Tips in other languages.
Join the familiar CBeebies character who has activities for your children to help develop their Speech & Language.
A government run website with simple, fun activities to do with your child age 0-5.
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