Teaching toddlers to talk

You watch your toddler learning to talk and you often wonder what exactly is going on in her head and how much she understands of what you are saying.

A Canadian study came up with a fascinating finding: infants can tell the difference between two languages without hearing the spoken words.

Whitney Weikum at the University of British Columbia had three groups of infants, ages four, six and eight months, from bilingual Canadian homes watch silent video clips of an adult speaking either French or English.

"The baby watches the screen and sees the faces of the people talking," Weikum said. "When the baby's looking time declines, the computer switches and starts a clip of an adult talking the other language. The baby notices the switch and starts watching the screen again."

That ability to tell the difference can diminish over time, depending on what languages are spoken in the home, the study found. Eight-month-old babies from bilingual French-English homes would return their attention to the screen when the language was changed. But the ability to tell the difference was lost at about eight months of age by babies from homes where only one language was spoken.

The study has important implications because it supports the belief that the brain can use multiple cues in language processing and suggests that multiple cues in teaching languages can be beneficial.

The findings also have practical applications for remedial speech teaching. Various remedial tools use multi-stimuli. This is a confirmation that the multiple cues that we give babies are actually useful.

So how can you use this information?

Teaching toddlers to talk
Language skills are crucial not only because they allow us to communicate effectively, but also because they have an impact on our ability to interact with the environment and to learn. The pre-school years are a particularly important stage in the development of language skills.

"As a parent, you can play a vital role in the development of a child's language skills. You need to help prepare your child for school by correctly stimulating her language skills," says Liesel van Niekerk, a speech and hearing teacher.

Even before your child goes to "big" school, you need to help her linguistically, so that she will be able to learn new concepts more easily. If she is linguistically handicapped, it will have a negative effect on her schoolwork – from reading, spelling and writing to mathematics.

What your kid should know
By the time she starts school, she should know her full name, surname and address; knowing her telephone number would be a bonus. She should know her date of birth, her body parts, the days of the week, time concepts like today, yesterday and tomorrow, and a few rhymes.

She should also be able to distinguish between basic shapes and colours, she should be able to follow three sets of instructions in the correct sequence, count to ten, express herself without using baby language and be familiar with the concepts left, right, forward and backwards.

If she is not yet able to do all of these things, you still have a few months to help to prepare her linguistically before she goes to school.

A few pointers
Here are a few tips:

• Keep talking to her, because she understands more than she can verbalise.

   

• Look at her when she talks to you – really listen and show that you are interested in what she is saying or asking. It is too easy to say you are busy and that she should come back later. The sad thing is that she usually won’t come back and that you will have missed a wonderful opportunity to teach her something new – at the very time she wanted that information.

   

• Develop her listening skills. Teach her how to listen carefully to instructions, broaden her language skills and improve her concentration, attention span and hearing memory. If she listens effectively, it is so much easier to develop her language skills, because when she hears the words, she can internalise them.

   

  At school, children are expected to listen when someone is speaking and to wait patiently. This can be a difficult task. Teach your child these skills in advance by being a good example of someone who can listen and wait. Listen to her. Don’t interrupt her, but wait until she has finished talking. Let her listen while you read her stories, or join her in listening to stories on tape. It will teach her how to sit still for a set period of time.

  Learn rhymes together. Children love it, and it teaches them memory skills. Later, it will help them a lot with spelling. Ask them for example, “Did you notice that the word cat in the poem rhymes with mat?”

• Play a parrot game where she has to copy everything you say. Start by saying a simple, short sentence, which she then repeats word for word. You could also use a telephone number (start with two or three digits), which she has to repeat in the correct order. Increase the number of digits or words according to her ability.

   

  Let her practise completing tasks correctly. Remember to first say her name, make eye contact and give a clear instruction only once. Check if she is able to complete the instruction and give her a big hug if she gave it her best shot.

• Children learn to speak by hearing others speak. Hearing language being used creatively in their own home has a bigger influence on them than just learning and hearing it at school. Try to avoid using baby language and rather use the correct words for things.

   

• Encourage her to use descriptive language. Things are not only nice; they can also be tasty, pleasant or beautiful.

   

• It is important that you have conversations with your child because she needs to learn to express her thoughts verbally in order to be able to write them down properly once she is at school. Play why-and-where games. You can say for example, “I wonder why that man is getting into the train?” or “I wonder where he is going?” Or you can play I-don’t-know games. “I don’t know what a lemon looks like. Can you describe one to me?”

   

• Praise her efforts and don’t correct her speech and grammar too much. Instead of saying, “You are wrong, this is not how you say it,” rather say, “Oh, you mean …” and then supply the correct word or expression.

   

• Involve her in everyday tasks and explain to her what you are doing and why you are doing it. When you are preparing supper and want to make soup, discuss w ith her which vegetables you are using, what you are using to peel the potatoes and how to grate the carrots. Stroke the soft, warm, fluffy sheets and pillowcases and feel the sprung mattress (while she helps you making the bed).

   

  Describe the clothes she is putting on, e.g. her long-sleeved blouse with the red collar. Ask questions about getting dressed or undressed that will stimulate her to think further than the obvious. For example, “Do all shirts have collars? Do all shoes have laces?”

• Ask questions (why, when, who and what) and – very importantly – wait for her answer. Encourage explanations. You may for example ask, “Why do you say that?”

   

• Encourage her to use full sentences like, “Please pass me the butter,” rather than, “The Butter, please!” She will need this when she starts writing sentences at school.

   

• Take her on outings and let her talk about her experiences. Prepare her beforehand for what you are going to see by e.g. visiting the library and paging through picture books together. After the excursion, you can ask questions about the experience. For example, “What did you see first? What did we do then? What did you like most? Why?” Page through the book again and check what you did and didn’t see.

   

• Let your child go to bed ten minutes earlier than usual and read or tell her stories. Story time is one of the most valuable sources of language development. It is important that you ask questions about the story like, “Did you enjoy it? What happened to the mouse? What would you have done if you were the mouse?

   

  Allow her to ask questions and to tell her own stories. Sometimes it leads to fascinating insights about her own little world and may give her the confidence to use her imagination and to express her own thoughts.

- (Health24 and HealthDay News)