Clinic For Speech Therapy &
Occupational Therapy
Communicating with our kids is one of the most pleasurable and rewarding part of parenting. Children learn by absorbing information through daily interactions and experiences not only with us, but with other adults, family members, other kids and the world. The more interactive conversation and play kids are involved, the more they learn.
As SLPs the most common questions we get are about how to improve the child’s communication skills. And also parents are extremely keen on knowing what all strategies can be used at home to boost their children’s participation in communication.
Therefore as an answer for all those questions we have compiled few tips on how to improve communication skills in a child. These tips will definitely enhance your child’s speech and language abilities.
This helps your child connect words with objects and actions. “I’m washing the dishes. I’m squeezing the yellow dish soap into the warm water.” Talk about what you are doing as you care for your child. “Here we go into the bathtub. Your arms, legs, and tummy are getting all wet. Rubber Ducky is having a bath too.” Talk as you play together: “You’re brushing your dolly’s hair. She has long hair. Are there any tangles?” With verbal toddlers, you can create a tradition where each family member shares something about his day. Ask your child questions about her day. Once she can speak, encourage her to ask you things too.
The children, especially the younger ones need to hear sounds and words repeatedly at least 100 times before they start saying them out. Try using those particular sounds and words in different situations repeatedly, so that the aspects related to a certain word may register in their minds permanently. And do not limit the repetition at all because it is the key for learning. The more you repeat, more they acquire!...
Meanwhile you be a role model to your child, you can be a better speaking model too. Because the children learn from you by imitating the way you speak, the way you do your work and so on. Therefore you really need to watch out what you say and do in front of your child. If you want to build strong speech and language skills in your child, you need to talk slightly above your child's level. That way they will be stretched enough to keep building their skills. way.
This sounds little tricky as you need to talk to them as if they are adults but still remember they are children. Considering your child as a matured communication partner does not mean that you can use adult vocabulary, jokes, or information they won't understand. It means take turns, use eye contact, and value what they say.
When you talk to younger children there will be many times they say something and you don't understand (gibberish), but it does not matter. Continue talking to them and take turns, make your best guess about what they are talking about and reply to them even if you're not sure what they're talking about.
The most important rule in communication is waiting for other person’s response. Mainly when we talk to children we must be patient enough and should show them that we are eagerly waiting for their response which can be shown in facial expressions in order to boost their communication capabilities. Therefore they may come up with the response sooner or later without fail.
A good rule of thumb is to wait 5-10 seconds for your children to answer. It gives them enough time to process what they want to say. This can also prevent or diminish stuttering in some children.
Children are far more likely to share their ideas and feelings if they know they won’t be judged, teased, or criticized. You can empathize with a child’s experience, yet disagree with his behaviour. For example, “I know you’re scared to sleep alone, but you need to stay in bed. Would you like some quiet music on?” Or, “I know you’re angry but you can’t throw the blocks. Here’s a pillow you can punch instead.”
When your child says something let him say the way he gets it. If you demand the child to say it correctly, especially if it is a sound that doesn't develop until he is old enough he may not respond next time.
something.For an example, for younger children when they call something by the right name, say "Great job" or "You're right, that is a..." or "Wow! Very good" For older children you might compliment them when they use a new vocabulary word that you modelled for them. You might say, "Hey, I am really glad that you remember it."
Not only that, but also you can praise them for solving a problem on their own or if you notice they say a complex or grammatically correct sentence by saying...
You may turn the TV off and keep your mobile away from your child. Make him realize that there is no need of using these gadgets all the time. This can help with your child’s behaviour in the long run too. This will help your children expand their imagination, learn to entertain themselves, and consequently strengthen their language skills.
Reading is an amazing act that helps your child imagine the world and beyond its measure. I'm not just talking about books; you can read the back of the cereal boxes, names of the shops you pass while you travel, people's shirts, and signs on the streets. The more exposure your children have to speech sounds and language structure, the sooner they will begin to understand it.
When reading books, keep in mind you don't have to read a book word by word. Instead, simply look at the pictures and talk about what you see. Try to read at least one book a day. For example, when reading Fox and the grapes, you might say "Oh no, fox couldn’t reach the grapes" or "The fox was so hungry", etc.
This accomplishes two things.
Open ended questions are when the answers can be a variety of things and not answered by "Yes" or "No". These questions will teach your child how to think "hard" and reason for themselves. You need to be really careful here. Don't bombard your child with question after question thinking that this will build high language skills. Think of yourself as a model and conversation partner, not a tester.
Here are some examples of how to turn simple questions into open ended ones:
Question: Did you go to the school?
Open Ended Question: Where did you go?
Follow up Question: What did you see?
"Tell me about..." is the best phrase to use when you focus on language skills.
The earlier you teach your children this concept, the better. When something happens or they do something wrong, help them understand why is it considered to be wrong. This takes more practice and patience but it will pay off in the long run as they get to see the reason or the consequence behind each and every action that they are involved in. Later on they’ll be able to correlate whatever happens with better reasoning skills.
Example for a younger child: Child stands on chair, falls off, and starts to cry (assuming they didn't really injure themselves). A parent could say: "You fell down" or "You got hurt", "You shouldn't stand on chairs"
Example for an older child: Child doesn't tell you where they were going. A parent could say: "What could happen if you get hurt and I don't know where you are?" Remember you can and should do this in a positive way as well.
Example: Child follows your directions to clean their room. A parent could say: "Thank you for cleaning your room, you can play with your friends longer today because you did what I asked."
We hope these tips have given you a better idea about how to improve communication skills at home. And please refer back to them often to refresh, and tell others where you found them.