Page 56 - Mother & Baby - UK (March 2020)
P. 56
Le arn i n g
to taLk
Special
give
full replies
Whenyour toddlersaysalittlesentence,
expandonthat sentenceinyourreply.‘Thisis a
wayofmodellinghowweusewords,’saysAnnie.
‘Forexample,ifyourtoddlersays,“Park!”,youcould
reply,“Youwant togotothepark?”Thisusesthe
wordsthatyourtoddlerhasused,soyou’re
showing that youunderstandher,butyou’re
also lettingherhearthosewords
in a longersentence.’
Who,
what, where?!
‘Who,whatandwhereareallvitalwords,but
they’requitecomplicated!’saysAnnie.‘Ittakeschildren
untilthey’reaboutthreetounderstandthat“who”referstoa
person,“what”refersto athingand“where”referstoalocation.’
Youcanhelpyourchild todevelopthatunderstandingbyusing
thesewordsregularly,ina setpattern.Forexample,everytimethere’s
aknockatthedoor,youcansay,‘Who’satthedoor?’andthen,when
youopenit,youcansay, ‘Daddy’satthedoor!’.Thishelpsyourbaby
tounderstandthelink betweentheword‘who’andaperson.
‘You can do the same thingwiththeotherwords,’saysAnnie.‘For
example, you could alwayssay,“Whereismycoat?”before
opening the wardrobeandsaying,“Hereismycoat!”or
try, “What is for lunch?”“It’spastaforlunch!”’
Show
me the…
dinosaur!
take
care of teddy Forthissimple,fungame,allyouneedto do
isthrowaselectionofchild-friendlyobjects
Pretendplay isagreatwaytoencourage intoabox.Thenaskyourtoddlertoshow you
toddlerstochat. ‘Pretendthatyourchild’steddyisa the…dinosaur/sponge/dolly/apple/shoe/
baby,’saysAnnie.‘Together,youcanfeedhim,changehim book.Asher word skills grow,shecan
andputhiminthecot.’ Thispretendplayisachancetocombine challenge you to showher
wordsthatrefertofamiliarobjects–suchasnappy,bottle,cotand the dinosaur!
pyjamas–andactionwords,suchasgive,pass,find,put.’So,you
mightsay,‘Pleasepass methebottle’or‘Teddywantsacuddle’.
‘Becauseyou’repretendingaboutafamiliarsituation–being
ababy–yourtoddler knows what’s going on andwhat’s
expected,’saysAnnie. ‘That means she can focusonwhat
you’resayingand on the meaning of the words,
especially the harder-to-understand
“action” words.’
54 | March 2020 | mothe ra ndbaby.co.uk
