Provide feedback for your child's language

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 251, 19 July 1988, Page 8

Provide feedback for your child's language

For your child's language to develop you must talk and listen to him every day. By listening to what your child says and how he says it you will know what stage his language is at and then be able to provide appropriate feedback to promote language development at the next stage. After one year children should be experi-

menting with sounds and be saying a few single words. You can make sure you are providing this essential vocabulary by naming things your child is familiar with, e . g . names of food, drinks, toys, pets etc. Try encouraging your child to repeat the word. A child will not begin putting two words together until he has about 50 single words,

so it is important to provide your child with the names for things and expect him to use them as soon as possible. The first words a child says are normally names of things (nouns). Check that your child uses some action words (verbs), e.g. go, sit, drink, as your child needs a supply of both nouns and verbs before he can be-

gin to put two words together. By 18-24 months your child should be using simple two word phrases, e.g. sit chair, no milk, Mum walk. If your child is still using single words provide a two word model for him to copy - if he says 'Dad' when dad comes home add to it by saying 'Dad's home' o r 'Here's Dad'. By using language of the next stage you are encouraging your child to move onto the next stage. If you simply repeat what he has said or if you fail to respond no model is provided so that no growth can occur. Between two and three years of age major language growth occurs. New words are added, the number of words used together increases. By three years of age children should be using three and four word sentences and understand most of what is said to them. We should also be able to understand what he is saying. If your three year old says something that is not clear or is incorrect be sure to say it back to f him in its corrected

form so that he then has a correct model to copy. By four to five years of age children should be using full sentences. There will still be odd grammatical errors, e.g. 'the mans walked home' or 'he falled down' but as long as you correct these mistakes as he makes them, your child will soon learn the

correct form and use it next time. It is important to listen to the type of language your child uses so that you can provide appropriate feedback that will promote language development. To help your child, try to: listen to what he says; decide what aspect of speech language he is having dif-

ficulty with; provide your child with the corrected form for him to use in the future. By providing appropriate feedback your child learns about the effectiveness of his language and so becomes more effective at communicating.