Do more to say more: the best activities for language development.

Parents and caregivers play an important role in their children’s language development. Supporting your child’s language development does not require expensive resources or hours of extra time. Some of the best learning opportunities happen during everyday moments at home.

The more opportunities parents and caregivers give their children to hear and use language, the more their children’s language develops. Daily routines, such as getting dressed, bath time and play time, provide many opportunities to help children build their language skills naturally.

Find more articles about language development here, here, here and here.

practical strategies

Helena Kruger, a qualified speech-language therapist and member of the Child Language Development Node (CLDN) at Stellenbosch University, shares practical strategies parents and caregivers can incorporate into daily communication with their children to support language development.

These tips can be grouped into three broad themes.

1. Create opportunities to communicate

One of the most effective ways to support your child’s language development is by creating opportunities for them to communicate throughout the day.

You can do so by giving them simple choices. By asking your child to show or say what they want, you give them the chance to make decisions and express their preferences with words, gestures or actions.

This improves children’s communicative development and shows them that they can communicate to make things happen in their world.

For example, you can give the child a choice between two or three things, while saying the words for it. For example: “Would you like milk or water?” or “Do you want the block or the ball?” while showing them the items. Your child can then show you what they want in different ways, depending on their level of development. They can tell you with words or sounds, show you with their body (for example, by pointing), or even just by looking at the one they want.

This strategy works best if the options you give are things that the child really wants and is allowed to have or do.

2. Model communication

Support language development by modelling communication throughout the day. By giving examples of everyday communication, parents and caregivers can help their children learn new ways to express themselves.

One simple activity is to describe what you or your child is doing, hearing, seeing and experiencing throughout the day. It’s almost like radio commentary! They may not yet be able to understand or use all the words or sentences, but this gives them the words and sentences they will need later to talk about different experiences.

By describing and naming objects you use with your child, you can help them understand what the object is and what it is used for. For example, while setting up your child’s dinner, you can say, “That is a fork. You eat your food with it.”

Bath time is another excellent opportunity to model language. As this is a familiar activity, you give your child plenty of opportunities to hear the words associated with this routine. Describe bath time activities, saying things like, “Mommy is putting more soap on the washcloth. Now I’m washing your back!”

3. Encourage your child to take a turn

Another easy way to support your little one’s language development is to create opportunities for your child to participate in conversations.

Try to intentionally leave gaps or short pauses in your sentences while speaking to the child. This gives them the chance to fill in the missing word or complete the sentence. Use your body language and facial expressions to show them that you expect them to complete the sentence.

Leaving pauses in your sentence makes the child an active participant in the conversation. They learn to listen carefully to what is being said, allowing them to learn and understand new words.

Do this by using simple activities like rhymes, songs, stories and active games your little one is already familiar with, and where they can easily predict what word comes next. You can incorporate this strategy into everyday routines, such as getting dressed. When helping your child get dressed, you can start by talking about what you are going to do next and leaving out the next word.

For example: “We are now going to put on your socks, then we will need your …” and wait for them to say “shoes.”

These small moments encourage children to use language naturally and in an enjoyable way while building their confidence as communicators.

By the Child Language Development Node, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR),

University of Stellenbosch