Repeat familiar words and gestures that accompany your actions as you carry out caregiving routines like feeding, bathing. New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children. Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2006). Facilitating language skills: Inservice education for early childhood educators and preschool teachers. Infants & Young Children, 19, 36–46.
Talking to children during daily caregiving routines also helps them to acquire listening, comprehension and communication skills. Girolametto, L., & Weitzman, E. (2002). Responsiveness of Child Care Providers in Interactions With Toddlers and Preschoolers. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 33(4), 268–281. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2002/022) Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2006). Facilitating language skills: Inservice education for early childhood educators and preschool teachers. Infants & Young Children, 19, 36–46. Honig, A. ed. (2014). Fostering Early Language with Infants and Toddlers. Montessori Life, 26(2), 28–31.
Allowing infants to communicate using baby-talk or other means helps children listen and communicate and grasp the language quickly. A longitudinal study on 48 infants aged nine to twenty-seven months in Scotland found that the more baby-talk words that infants are exposed to and allowed to use, the quicker they grasp language. Assessments of nine-month-old children suggest that those who hear words such as “bunny” or “choo-choo” frequently are faster at picking up new words between nine and twenty-one months.
Listening to music is an exercise in receptive language skills – words that children understand but may not yet be able to say. Music gives children easy access into practicing language and deciphering meaning. Children who can distinguish different sounds and phonemes are more likely to develop stronger literacy skills over time.