How to Enhance Your Child's Speech/Language Development 

Through Every Day Routines

Parents/caregivers are their children's experts and best language teachers/models!  They spend a great deal of time with them each day, which spans a lifetime.  There are so many opportunities to enhance language skills throughout the daily routines that everyone engages in anyway.

Here is a short list of ideas parents/caregivers can implement with their children 0-5 years to support optimal speech/language and social skills development.

Child 6-9 mos. Spend time close up to your child (e.g. face to face, on the floor), imitating their babbling, playing "tickle tickle" and peekaboo games.  Smile, look at, and talk to your child frequently.  Vary your pitch to sound melodic and higher pitch than when talking to adults.

Child age 9-12 mos.  Point to everyday items in your child's life while naming them.  Talk to your child about what you do with him/her in care taking (e.g. changing diaper, feeding, driving in the car, shopping at the store).

Child age 12-24 mos. Point to everyday items in your child's life while naming them.  Talk to your child about what you do with him/her in care taking (e.g. changing diaper, feeding, driving in the car, shopping at the store).  Use routine-bound words (e.g. on the slide, up-up-up, ready set go, weee). Read early books (e.g. board books) that have few and large pictures in them.  Talk about the pictures rather than reading the text.  Use short sentences (e.g. "The boy eats a banana.").

Child age 24-36 mos. Narrate what your child does (or others s/he observes) using the present tense in short comments, avoiding questions and pronouns (e.g. "Johnny is swinging," "Daddy is making eggs." etc.).  Include your child in every day routines such as grocery shopping, laundry, washing dishes. Ask and answer wh-questions about daily events and points of interest to support syntactic and semantic development of question asking, especially what and where. Play with your child on the floor using open-ended toys (e.g. animals, play food, blocks, etc.).  Describe your child's play and yours to him/her (e.g. "Johnny, your dinosaur is eating the tree").  Read early books (e.g. board books) that have few and large pictures in them.  Talk about the pictures rather than reading the text.  Use short sentences (e.g. "The boy eats a banana.").

Child age 36-48 mos. Share your daily activity schedule with your child, as you narrate the past, present, and future activities you do together to encourage development of verb tenses (e.g. "We're driving to school, and later we will go to your swim lesson." "You went to school, and now you are swimming.  Later we will eat dinner." etc.).  Ask and answer wh-questions about daily events and points of interest to support syntactic and semantic development of question asking, especially where, who, and why.   Use these teachable moments to stimulate concepts such as size, color, shapes, numbers.  Read books frequently, and make them routine in your life (e.g. before bed, during meals, during bath time with water-safe books).  Go to the library and/or bookstore, and include your child in the routine of checking out/buying books.  Play word/rhyming games (e.g. "Hop hop, now we [stop]").  Play board games/turn-taking games to encourage turn-taking, social commenting (e.g. "It's my turn, I got four.  I'm going up the ladder!").

Child age 48-52 mos. Ask and answer wh-questions about daily events and points of interest to support syntactic and semantic development of question asking, especially when, and why, and how.  Read books frequently, and make them routine in your life (e.g. before bed, during meals, during bath time with water-safe books).  Go to the library and/or bookstore, and include your child in the routine of checking out/buying books.  Play word/rhyming games (e.g. "Hop hop, now we [stop]").   Play board games/turn-taking games to encourage turn-taking, social commenting (e.g. "It's my turn, I got four.  I'm going up the ladder!").

Shirit Megiddo, M.S., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL