Here are some tips from the website: www.zerotothree.org
Children Birth-12 mos
- Describe her feelings and experiences. For example, when you see that she is hungry, you can say: You are nuzzling at my shirt. You’re telling me you’re hungry. Okay, your milk is coming right up! Although your baby won’t understand your words right away, your caring, loving tone of voice and actions will make her feel understood. And hearing these words over and over again will help her come to understand them over time.
- Copy your baby’s sounds and encourage him to imitate you.
- Put words to her sounds: I think you want to tell me about the doggy over there. Look at that doggy. Hi, doggy!
- Sing songs you know, or make up songs about your baby (Happy bathtime to you, happy bathtime to you, happy bathtime, sweet baby, happy bathtime to you.) You don’t have to be on key or be good at carrying a tune. Babies don’t judge—they love hearing your voice.
Children 12-24 mos:
- Chat with your child. Research has found that the more parents talk with their children, the larger vocabularies those children develop. These children also use more advanced sentence structures. So chatting with your toddler—in the car, at the playground, during bath time—is very important.
- Notice and build on your child’s interests. Your child will let you know what interests and excites him by using his actions, facial expressions and speech. When he points out the window or gives you a questioning look, put his actions into words: Yes, that’s a squirrel. Look at him running along the fence.
- Use new words when you talk with your toddler. A snack can be many things: good, healthy, yummy, crunchy, round, etc. Talk about what you are doing (I have to wipe the crumbs off the table) and about what you see your child doing (You are knocking down your block tower. Watch it go boom!).
Children 24 to 36 mos:
- Talk together. Talking with your toddler helps her expand her vocabulary and learn more complex sentence structures. Talking together also develops her literacy skills as she is more comfortable and confident with language. Talk as you: ride in the car, do errands together, make a meal, take a walk. Research shows that talking with children during everyday routines increases their vocabularies.
- Ask open-ended questions that don’t have a yes/no answer. This helps your child develop her own ideas and opinions. If you see some ants in a line, you might say, “What tiny little ants! Where do you think they are going?”
- Notice the number, size, shape and color of the things around you. If you are at the supermarket, you can talk about the colors of different fruits, count out the apples as you put them in a bag, and notice that there are big fruits (like pineapple) and little fruits (like grapes).
