Repeat familiar words and gestures that accompany your actions.
Talking to children during daily caregiving routines 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.
Researchers found that talkative parents included affirmative, encouraging, and child-responsive talk into their talk repertoire – features that were much less apparent in homes where infants experienced very low levels of talk.
A researcher reported that the quantity of infant-directed talk during mealtimes was positively associated with mothers’ tendency to extend their topic of conversation over multiple utterances as well as infants’ tendency to respond to the topic.
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 to practice language and decipher meaning, different sounds and words. Children who can distinguish different sounds and phonemes are more likely to develop stronger literacy skills over time.