Five Tips to Boost Your Child's Linguistic Development
How you can help your kid acquire their first language and build a strong vocabulary.
When a child is about 30 months, they enter the phase that Maria Montessori calls "the explosion of language." All of a sudden, they start producing long(er) sentences, using rich vocabulary, and wow what happened? That's the feeling that parents and caregivers experience.
So, what can we do to help? As a rule of thumb, the richer the linguistic environment in which surrounding the child, the better the child's language will be. Parents and educators have to talk a lot and well, and it's just as important when a child still does not verbalize.
Here are five essential tips to boost a child's linguistic power.
1. NARRATE ACTIONS AND NAME OBJECTS
With newborns and babies, narrating every action is the easiest way to introduce language in a non-artificial way. Dressing and undressing, preparing a bottle, or changing the diaper are all contexts in which the description of every step is easy, and the very nature of the actions ensures that repetition that is crucial in linguistic development.
When presenting an object to a child, try to pronounce its name clearly and in isolation, rather than in a long sentence; it's easier for them to associate that string of sounds to that object. When the input is clear, it often only takes one or two repetitions for them to memorize it.
Around 18 months, children begin to learn words at a rate of one every two waking hours, make sure they are exposed to a broad and diverse vocabulary.
When presenting an object to a child, try to pronounce its name clearly and in isolation.
2. USE A CALM TONE OF VOICE
It can be tricky at first, but speaking with a low and calm tone of voice enhances the child's focus and creates the ideal cognitive environment for acquisition. It's also calming for both parent/caregiver and child. It's probably a good idea to limit the use of baby-voices and falsetto; everything is input and every piece of input matters.
3. HOW TO REACT WHEN THEY CAN'T GET IT RIGHT
The period immediately preceding the linguistic explosion, around 24 months, is a period of great frustration for the child because his thought is now precise, the linguistic production...um, not so much.
If you understood the word or sentence they are trying to say, try repeating it slowly and let them read your lips.
Try to not skip your repetition. It’s absolutely crucial.
4. USE A SIMPLE SENTENCE STRUCTURE
If the input is too long or too complex, it can result confusing and that's often the reason why children stop paying attention and might not do what they're asked to. Especially with directives, but with everything, favor short clear sentences.
5. AVOID EXPLICIT CORRECTIONS (AND EXPLANATIONS)
Choose to repeat the proper word or sentence instead of correcting the child. Corrections are quite useless in this context: in first language acquisition, nothing really happens via negation, it's only the correct input that will eventually yield a correct output.
In this spirit, repeating a wrong expression (sometimes it's irresistible because mispronounced words or sentences can be very cute) will only slow the process down. In other words, you want to try to avoid having incorrect input in the mix as much as possible. This is also why, when it comes to bilingualism, it's not recommended for parents of two different languages, raising a bilingual kid, to speak to their child in a language that isn't their own.
P.S. We made you an easy printable with a summary of this article that you can give to your nanny or babysitter!
References:
Berwick, R. C. (1985) The acquisition of syntactic knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, C. (1969) Acquisition of Syntax in Children from 5 - 10. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1973) Some strategies for the first two years. In T. In T. E. Moore. (Ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language. New York: Academic Press.
Goodluck, H. (1991) Language Acquisition: a linguistic introduction. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Perino, A. (2019) Favorire lo sviluppo del linguaggio: sette consigli pratici, Uppa.it.
Pinker, S. (1994a) The language instinct. New York: Morrow.Pinker, S., & Bloom, P. (1990) Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 707-784.
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