By Martha Lizarraga
Language is essential for children to express their thoughts and feelings and understand each other. It supports your child's ability to communicate, express, and understand their feelings, while supporting their thinking skills and helping them develop and maintain relationships.
Main activities that help facilitate language growth in children at an early age:
▪ Exploratory play: this is when children use their physical skills and their senses to discover what they can do. For example, a small child obtains a series of new blocks and studies them one by one, looking at them from all angles while slowly turning them in his hand.
▪ Teacher-designed activities: Including planning and providing space and time for children to learn and explore while staying safe. Examples: accessories, toys.
▪ Routine activities: these are those that he does every day with young children. For example: washing hands, dressing, changing diapers, bathing, brushing teeth, reading a book before bed, eating.
Suggestions to facilitate language growth at home for early childhood children:
▪ Always stay at the child's level, maintaining eye contact and paying attention to the child's facial expressions.
▪ Let your child express his or her own words and ideas, even if you don't understand them.
▪ Encourage dialogue with simple words. Example: Good morning, how are you waking up today! Or what did you have for lunch at the care center? It is important to promote communication through a balanced distribution of shifts.
▪ Read a book with the child (colorful and fun), it is not necessary to read the whole thing, show him the images and ask him questions like: What do you see here? Point with your finger at the objects or things they are talking about in the book.
▪ Use games that allow the child to explore, and most importantly, interact with the child by making short interventions.
▪ During routines, constantly encourage dialogue between both of you (listen and respond; know how to wait and take pauses).
▪ Share a song, imitate sounds (animals or things), create song lyrics, and dance.
