What Parents Can Do

Talk to your child about everything.  Children need a lot of verbal stimulation from infancy on.  Play games with sounds and words.  Your children will pick up most of their vocabulary from you.

Listen to your child and expand on his/her language.  Use well-formed sentences that are a little longer than his/hers.  Use new vocabulary.

• Child: "Truck broke"

• Parent: "The truck is broken.  It needs a new windshield."

Read to your child frequently.  Talk about pictures and situations in books.  Your child learns new vocabulary, concepts and the patterns of language from being read to.

Play games with your child.  He/she can learn cooperation, turn taking, how to follow rules, how to communicate with others, new concepts

Play hospital, zoo, store, barber shop, restaurant or airport with your child.  These activities develop creativity and help your child learn about life situations.

Classify.  Help your child make scrapbooks or sort things so he/she will learn concepts of color, size, matching, comparisons, and so forth.

Provide new experiences.  Take field trips, make things, cook, do science experiments.  Involve you child in daily activities.  Talk about these.

Use television to its best advantage.  Limit its use to good programs and spend more time in family interaction.

Make language and speech fun for your child.  Reinforce his/her attempts and give praise.

Concerning your child's speech and language attempts... do not allow other family members to tease, make fun of, imitate, or label him/her.

Explore and experiment with toys and household items to promote creativity and interest in our environment.

Use and discuss the five senses: hearing, tasting, smelling, touching *seeing

Remember to schedule frequent rest breaks for your child, especially if they become restless. Then gradually and very slowly increase the amount of time to help develop their attention span.

Use a lot of repetition- children enjoy repetition of something they like

Avoid comparing your child to siblings

Love, encourage and praise your child daily!