How do I support my child’s language development at home?

A common question I get, especially from new parents, is: “What can I do to support my child’s speech and language development at home?”

This is a great question and how we go about this has a great impact on your child’s ability to communicate, think, problem-solve, pick up social cues, and of course, to communicate.

I’d like to emphasize that every child is different, every home environment is different. So to see the best improvements, we’d need to go through a proper initial assessment before arriving at a personalized therapy plan.

However, there are some evergreen tips that everyone can apply in their home with children, as they are discovering and exploring communication:

Use gestures with your words

Gestures are important in your child’s expressive ability, especially when they have no spoken words yet. Pointing and other gestures allow your child to communicate with you, what they want and need.

Think of gestures as a gateway to greater expressive vocabulary later on. Your child first starts to pick up gestures from you, and learns to associate words or actions with words along the way.

Saying “open” while you are demonstrating the hand gesture/action, helps to reinforce word association.

Use repetition during playtime

Repetition helps make associations stick through practice. Children needs to hear the word association multiple times before they associate meaning to the object/action/etc.

This also helps your child understand that these differences are important when they wish to express themselves.

An example I personally use with my own child, is repeating the word “Lion” whenever we see a picture of a Lion. After multiple repetitions, he was able to independently identify Lions when asked!

Offering a choice between two options

A great way to support your child's language would be to get them to select between two options. This allows a child to send a specific message about what they want or need.

Here’s an exercise you can do: while presenting an apple and a pear to your child, ask “Would you like an apple or a pear?”. This exercise empowers the child to independently provide answers within a structured context, even if they have no spoken words yet.