Language is used everywhere. Therefore, it seems that as a parent, you would want to do everything in your power to support and improve your child’s language abilities before they start their educational journey in schools in Abu Dhabi. Your child will be on the right track to achieving their communication milestones if you support their language development.
“Children are typically expected to attain particular milestones in communication by a certain age. These developmental milestones reinforce one another and let us know if a kid is progressing as expected” The National Association for the Education of Young Children was informed by Adena Dacy, MS, CCC-SL (NAEYC).
But how can you support (and enhance) your child’s language abilities? What should you do each day to promote the growth of their speech and language growth?
Tips for supporting your kid’s linguistic skills at every age and stage:
Ways to support children’s linguistic development
Every small word joined together by your kid is the starting point to fluency in the spoken language. At this stage, it is necessary to provide total support and interact with them, even if it feels a bit strange replying to the garbled language of a kid of this age.
Sing to your child and play music a lot
Music affects people’s lives. Research demonstrates a link between a rich musical environment in infancy and the promotion of the development of communication abilities, regardless of whether children are singing along to nursery rhymes or listening to their favorite Cocomelon tunes all day. Keep the music playing while driving or dancing around the kitchen while your child prepares.
Talk to your child to encourage interaction and speech
Once kids start going to school or play groups they are more likely to move beyond making noise or weeping. They have a rudimentary way of expressing their needs or different emotions. As parents, we need to exercise immense patience here. Sometimes, we may not even understand what the kid is trying to say. But instead of losing patience, we need to lend a helping ear to them. Encourage the child to speak more and speak often. Over time, they will be able to better communicate their feelings to you.
So, even though your kid isn’t yet able to communicate articulately with you through words, they are still watching everything you do and will use that as the foundation for learning how to communicate.
How to support toddlers’ language development before admitting them into schools in Abu Dhabi?
As your child approaches toddlerhood, their communication style is beginning to alter. It doesn’t necessarily mean that their linguistic growth is finished. Your child may reach several communication milestones between 18 months and two years, including the ability to utter 10 to 50 different words, follow straightforward instructions, and employ straightforward two-word phrases.
Read often and frequently
Numerous studies have demonstrated the link between reading and a strong language foundation. No matter how young they are, reading to your child fosters vocabulary growth and letter and word identification. Many kindergarten novels utilize phrases and descriptions unusual for everyday discussion while also capturing their imagination.
Narrating
You may incorporate narration into your regular interactions with your toddler in two ways. The first step is to discuss your activities. For instance, “I’m folding the laundry.” or “I’m baking you a nice snack.” The second is discussing your child’s activities. Like, “You’re building with the blocks,” or “You’re controlling the car’s wheels.” It’s a green vehicle.”
It helps children develop their ability to transform words into phrases and sentences by describing what you are doing or what you see them doing. Thus, you are doing the basics before putting them into a kindergarten.
Kindergarten and beyond: Increasing children’s language skills
The ways you may support your child’s language and communication abilities are evolving as they approach school age. You may do a few things at home to assist them while they are working on this in schools in Abu Dhabi.
Play with acting
Playing pretend benefits your child’s language development in addition to their imagination. Dramatic play is a great approach to help your child develop tales, plots, characters, and emotions. These elements support vocabulary growth and the ability to combine words and sentences.
Conduct open-ended inquiries
Avoid restricting your child by only asking yes or no questions. Ask open-ended inquiries to encourage explanations. Sometimes the detour they take, starting a completely different subject, may surprise you.
Don’t criticize or correct
There will be a learning curve with your child’s language development, just like everything else we learn in life. Don’t immediately correct or criticize them if their verb tenses, choice, or pronunciation are incorrect. They can view this criticism negatively and be reluctant to attempt again, or they might feel ashamed.
Instead, try saying the sentence aloud while using the revised language, as the experts at schools in Abu Dhabi discussed in this blog.
Signing off
Your child’s language development will accelerate substantially in the first few years of life, going from first words through complete phrases. However, it might be challenging to determine if they are reaching the proper benchmarks.
When you visit a kindergarten, you may observe how young children learn with others their age. Do you wish to learn more about Abu Dhabi’s schools? Take a look at Abu Dhabi Global Indian School.
