As a parent, it can seem overwhelming to think about how it’s your job to grow your child’s vocabulary. They’re born with zero words and you’re supposed to get them speaking in full sentences. Like how?! As a mom of two, I have found some things that do wonders for helping grow your child’s language and also…. they’re simple things that don’t require a lot of work!! So why not give them a try? Let me share them with you 🙂
- Read Books. You can start this as soon as your baby is born. Read books out loud. As a little baby, it doesn’t even matter what books they are truly. My husband would read the Narnia books out-loud to our son as a newborn. They’ll learn by hearing you say words & then seeing your mouth move as you speak. Once the baby is no longer a newborn and can actually see in color, reading books that have pictures they can look at while you read will also help their language too. For example, seeing your mouth say, “dog,” then seeing a dog on the page, and hearing the word from your mouth. That’s three separate ways your child is exposed to the word. All of this learning happens from you simply reading your child a book!
- Explain what you’re doing. No matter if you think it’ll go over their heads or not, explain what you are doing. If you’re making a cup of coffee, say aloud what you’re doing and how you’re making it. The child doesn’t need to be right there observing everything closely for them to pick up on new words. And just because your kid doesn’t need to know how to do that specific thing at the moment, they’re still learning and growing in their language.
- Don’t make up words to replace other words. I feel so strongly about this one. Kids are smarter than we tend to give them credit for. Use the real words for things, even if you don’t think they’ll understand it. I think it’s silly when people make up fake words and sounds to describe things to their kids to try and make them more “kid-friendly.” Also, I don’t want to get on a big rant over this, but for their body parts, use the real words, don’t make up silly things. They need to know what things are actually called! Okay rant done.
- House tours. This is such an easy thing to do with your itty bitty baby. Walk them around your house and talk them through it like you’d explain it if a friend was seeing it for the first time, but use as many details as possible. For example…. “This is your brother’s room. Here is his crib. He takes naps and sleeps here. Do you see his blanket? It has elephants on it! Elephants are grey and have really long trunks.” It’ll flow naturally as you’re walking around doing it. You’re exposing them to colors, words, textures, etc. through a simple house tour. Think about all the exposure your baby gets through this!
- Learning shows. Some might disagree with screen time, but there are benefits to it. For example, my son learned a ton of words, phrases, and sign language from the Youtuber, Ms. Rachel. He has also really expanded his vocabulary about cars and vehicles from Blippi, also on YouTube. Those are the two shows we’ll let my son watch and they’re teaching him a ton!
- Sign Language. There are a lot of benefits to teaching your littles some sign language. Even just the signs for “more,” “all done,” “please,” & “thank you.” They’re all simple for adults to learn and just start using them as you’re saying those words and they’ll quickly catch on. This helps babies, at a young age, be able to communicate with you!
Tia Marie 🙂
tia marie 