How to make your child talk before 2 years old?
Recently I was asked on how to introduce language to your child.
After replying to many times, I thought I will just share here as there are so much to tell you.
Even this post will not be enough to cover the topic.
I hope it will be a good introduction to what I always practice.
Isabella is 1 year 3 months and at this age she is a talker already.
We know kids throw tantrum when they feel frustrated for not acquiring the speech skills.
It is an inability not able to convey her wants and it drives a child crazy.
Parents will see their children throwing things, frustrated.
Why?? Because you don't get them.
To me speech learning skills are very important.
It is something you acquire throughout your life but with a little nudge, your child will able to develop the skill earlier than usual.
So, how do we expose our children to language??
1) Very easy. Talk to them.
2)Speak to them in simple sentence according to the age.
For 1 year old, I use very short instruction such as, ' Baby, get the ball'.
Of course she understood and went to get the ball.
I then changed to 'Baby, go get the ball'.
'Give mommy ball'
When she does, I said thank you and she replied ' qyouu' (means thank you).
3)We just want them to pick up the main word as instruction such as give, keep, throw, get, go.
When they understand that, you can ask them to get anything for you or help you pass your things to your husband.
4)Get your child involve in your chores. Kids love chores.
Example, when I a, folding my clothes, Isabella will pick each cloth one by one from the laundry basket and passed to me to be folded.
And when she is doing too fast, I will say, 'wait'.
And she repeats after me 'wait'.
She slows down.
5)You see, I use only one or two words but everytime I make use of varieties of words so that she picks up more.
These days, she will say 'sit' before she sits down, 'up' before she get up, 'nak' when she wants to eat, 'go' when she wants to go,'no' when she refused something.
6)Introduce new things in her life such as if you see houses or lorry or animals, you can show your child and mention the name.
'Flower, lorry, house, bird' repetitively.
7)Do not introduce too many at a time for 1-2 years old. Just 2-3 things will be enough at one session.
8)Story book with pictures.
For the age 1-3 years old, the picture has to be big and interesting with only few words.
Instead of reading the story, you can show your children what were inside the picture and you can create your own version of story based on the picture.
She can flip flap the fold and these days my baby can tell the story herself using simple words.
When someone or my friends meet her, they would ask me, 'what can she says?'
That is how we measure a developmental milestones for her age, how many words possess.
Well, of course she knows the things that she sees in her daily life so she will say,' cat, dog, fish, bird, duck, sit, up, thank you, go, give, wait, ball, car, book, kiss, salam, atok,opah, nak, no, yes, good, apatu?buat apa tu? Ada apa tu?mama, mommy, dadda, 1-10.
Those are the one that I can remember.
A lot right for 1 year 3 months?
Basically, she can show me what she wants, express her excitement when she sees something she recognizes and everytime I will appreciate her achievement by praising her or clapping my hands.
You have to be very consistent at what you do.
There is so much to teach the children and when you water and plant the seeds well, you will be very proud of the results.