Language Development
Language Used When Talking to Infants
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- Category: Language Development
- Last Modified: 17 July 2012
When talking to infants, talk to them in ‘motherese’ which is the way we talk in a high pitched voice to a baby. This seems to come naturally to people when talking to young infants (and dogs at times!). Children at this age are only able to hear the high pitched tones in the human voice and thus effective if you want to interact verbally with your child.
Touch/ caress your child as you talk to them. Naming body parts as to make them aware of what the name of the body part is they are feeling a sensation for. This helps in their awareness as they are very sensorial learners at this stage.
Language to Use When Talking to Toddlers
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- Category: Language Development
- Last Modified: 04 September 2012
Toddlers & Language - by this stage as you have already established wonderful conversations with your child, you can now stop talking in ‘motherese’ - the high pitched tone that you used when they were babies.
That can impede in their language development in learning how to really talk. Toddlers need to be spoken to like a real person and not ‘like a dog’ anymore. They are smarter than we give them credit for and absorb everything that is said to them. This is a sensitive period for language in children so take advantage of it and model it properly.
Bilingualism - Bilingual Children
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- Category: Language Development
- Last Modified: 11 February 2012
Raising Bilingual Children
The world is getting smaller globally and families that are of mixed cultures are becoming more common. Both parents then want their culture and language transferred to their children even in a country that speak a different language away from where they natively grew up in. So the question is how does one keep the pride of their culture and pass this on to their child, pass on a part of their identity.
Most parents are concerned that speaking to their child in different languages will confuse them and result in a delay in language development. With current studies this is found to be a myth. Studies have found that bilingualism does not cause a language delay in children.
Baby Sign Language
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- Category: Language Development
- Last Modified: 17 July 2012
Sign Language for Kids
Many parents are curious about baby sign language. Sign language was made popular by the movie “Meet the Fockers” where Robert De Niro’s character was teaching his grand child to communicate using sign language. So the question is: Is sign language effective and helpful to children or is it just a novel child minding strategy that is popular at the moment?
Let’s look into it: Baby sign language means signing to a child who understands but still does not have the ability to verbally communicate the needs. A toddler or a baby can get frustrated when no one can understand them and since they are physically able, yet not verbally able, children lash out physically - by hitting, biting or crying. Sign language can get the message across successfully and immediately.
