• Follow your toddler’s lead, and get on his bandwagon when he’s on a roll.  Narrate the scene and describe his own behavior back to him; “Sam loves to…,” or “Sam is sad his Mommy has to leave…,” or “Sam is so happy to play with his blocks.”  Don’t overdo, but do.  It shows your toddler that you understand him and appreciate his inner world, not just his blue eyes.  Soon enough it will be dialogue.

• Funny as early speech may sound, don’t exploit the humor of it at your child’s expense.  Whenever a new skill emerges, it is at its most raw and tender (remember your first public poetry recital?).  Stuttering and stammering are normal when children are learning to speak.  Treat early language with the respect it deserves.  It has taken tremendous effort to get here.  Say it back correctly if you figure out what it is, but don’t “correct” too much.  Be patient.  She won’t be saying much if her first words always are being corrected.

• Allow quiet play.  This may seem paradoxical when language is the goal, but rest and reflection that are restorative and interesting become important when so much effort is being expended in new skill.

• Talk about your own feelings and how they got that way in a simple and straightforward manner.  Children who have never heard their parents talking about how or what they are feeling on a day-to-day basis face an uphill climb to develop useful understandings about language and emotion.  Say things like, “I felt happy to get that nice letter from Grandma…” or “It scared me when the truck got so close.”  Simple, clear, and to the point.  The feeling in your voice will capture your toddler’s interest, so don’t be too surprised to see her staring at you at first.  It gives her the words to match the emotion she reads in you and will eventually identify in herself.

• Read, read, and read some more.  To them, to yourself, to each other.  Then talk about what you read.  It is the organic garden where new words grow.

Parent Tips:

• During early infancy, reading helps babies build neural pathways that will eventually provide language development and acquisition.
• Reading aloud to children encourages association with happiness, love and enjoyment. All of this can lead to children’s greater interest in reading and can result in larger vocabularies and better literary skills.
• Choose a childcare environment that encourages storytime as an important aspect of the school’s routine.
• Reading aloud to children also helps them with pronunciation and phonetics. Some children are able to recognize letters and numbers before they can speak, but if they are left to this without guidance their weaknesses can lie in pronunciation and sounding out words.
• When children speak incorrectly they should be gently corrected so that they are encouraged to use proper grammar and pronunciation. Reading books can help children learn the proper format of sentences which they often mistake in late toddlerhood.
• Children who are read to regularly, are more likely to continue reading throughout their lives.
• Children who read are more likely to have better writing skills and be placed in higher level classes.