Ways to help young children develop spoken language by encouraging their vocalizations

My previous article briefly describes a few prelinguistic skills that children acquire at a young age. These skills are necessary in-order for children to develop spoken language; one very important skill is vocalization. Most of the time children learn to crawl before walking and it is no different for language development; children need to produce plenty of vocalizations before they will start using real words. I am going to give you a few tips on how you can encourage your child to be more vocal very early on in their life.  The best thing to do is just talk, keep on talking, and talk some more! Its sounds so simple and it is! Just because your child may not understand you and is not able to respond verbally doesn’t mean that they are not listening and absorbing everything you are saying! Singing is another way you can encourage your child to vocalize.  I particularly don’t like the sound of my own voice when singing in therapy sessions but children don’t care what you sound like they just love to listen and if you lucky they will join in! One of the best ways you can encourage your child to vocalize is by imitation; repeat whatever your child say, for example: your child says, “papapa” you then respond with “papapa”. Continue to imitate your child’s vocalization for several turns if you can,  essential you might just have your “first conversation” with them!. Exposing your child to easy words are also a good way to increase babbling patterns ; easy words include animal sounds like “moo-moo” or “baa-baa” and transport noises like “hum-hum” and “beep-beep”. I hope you enjoyed these tips and remember it is never too early to help develop your child’s language!