Research has shown that the first five years of childhood are of rapid brain growth. Exposing your baby to a good learning environment is vital to help the overall child development. Kids learn through play. Therefore it becomes important to expose them to activities that encourage their logical and language skills.
Language Development: It is through language development that children understand and communicate. This process starts right from infancy and is rapid up to the age of five. Even a baby can understand his mother’s voice and calms down when she speaks to him. This language development gains momentum between the 2 -5 years growth period. Language development therefore reflects the growth and maturation of a child’s brain. Below mentioned are a few techniques that will assist you to nurture the language development in your baby
Flash Cards
Use Flash Cards or cut pictures from magazines to make a picture book and talk about it- A child’s inquisitiveness is your best catalyst in creating an interest for a language. You could get a set of flash cards or make them by cutting pictures from newspapers and magazines and discuss each of them with your baby. Example: When do you see a rainbow? How many colours can you see in it? Ask for her ideas on a picture first and thereafter give your opinion.
Board Books
These baby friendly books are very attractive and grasp the child’s attention with its vibrant colours and easy to read fonts. Some of them even come with sound outputs. Like a picture of a cow will have its sound ‘Moo’ written below and a button which when pressed makes the sound “Moo”. This will help your baby register the sounds and recognize the alphabets that are used to write out that sound.
Communication
Talk to him often on daily routines, on common objects, family members, etc. ask open ended questions. Take your kid for walks and talk to him about the things he sees.”Why do you think leaves fall?” “Why do you feel the moon is moving with us?”Do not shun away any questions raised by him. If he asks you why and how does it rain, try answering it by simplifying it as per a baby’s understanding ability. He may not have to know the complete (scientific) process but do not feed him illogical stories.
Read to your child everyday
This is one of the most effective methods of enhancing language development. Studies have shown that babies as small as one year, develop speech and reading skills faster than the others who are not read to. Reading age appropriate books and encouraging them to repeat a few words or describe the picture in the book go a long way in developing their language skills.
Sing songs
How many of us still remember the ‘Little Peter Rabbit’ song from our nursery days? Rhymes, action songs, enacting fairy tales and creating puppet shows will educate and entertain your baby. You will see your baby’s mind develop his own ideas and stories. These activities help him think and associate the actions to the particular words thereby improving his language skills.
