Storytime

Storytime is a fun weekly event that you can do with your little ones that is free! It's great to expose them to an environment where they have to follow simple directions, rules and listen to someone else other than you. Storytime also exposes them to new language, vocabulary and books. They usually have an expected sequence of events which helps your child work on predicting what will come next. Kayden has been going to storytime since he was about 3 months old. We started at the library storytime called Lapsit and now we do a storytime through the city of chandler events program. He loves going to storytime and gets very excited when I tell him that the next day we are going and I love taking him and exposing him to this fun learning environment.

The Police Cloud by Christoph Neimann

The Police Cloud by Christoph Neimann is a super cute book about a cloud that wants to be a "police cloud". The fact that he is a cloud makes it hard for him to stop criminals, this makes the cloud sad so he starts to cry. His tears put a fire out on a building that is on fire so the firechief wants him to be apart of the fire department. I love that it has such a sweet ending and that the little cloud ends up happy with a big fireman hat on.
Kayden really liked this book and asked to read it every night that we had it from the library. We were able to talk about some new vocabulary words like; criminal, robber, and sunbathing. He loves any book that has to do with firemen or policemen because to him they are heros so a book that has both in it is a sure winner in our house!

Burger Boy by Alan Durant

Last week at the library one of the books Kayden picked was Burger Boy by Alan Durant. This book made my little man laugh and laugh. It's probably best for kiddos 2 and 1/2 and up, the littler ones wouldn't understand it and parts of it will still be confusing to a 2 and 1/2 year old.

The story is a little boy that will only eat Burgers and his mom warns him that one day he could turn into a burger. He does and has to escape some different situations along his road to becoming a boy again.

The lesson is that you need to eat a variety of foods because all of one thing isn't enough for little kids. So this book could be good for picky eaters or little ones who are stuck on certain foods, it could help you bridge a conversation on why they need to eat a variety of foods.

It's also good for talking about food groups and different food categories. We used it to talk about fruits and veggies and which ones we like and some that he hasn't tried, etc.

Overall it's a fun book and got my little guys stamp of approval because everytime we read it during the last week he would laugh out loud, so to me that is a good book!

Play "I Spy"

I spy is a fun way to work on describing things without your child even realizing they are working on language at all. Take turns describing things you spy and then guessing, this incorporates both receptive (what they understand) and expressive (what they can say) language.
Fun times to play I spy are on a walk and driving in the car or just sitting in your living room!

Make a craft

Here are some recent crafts we have done together. He LOVES craft projects and gets very excited when we start them! And he loves showing them off to daddy, which results in another moment when he gets to use his language skills!

Making crafts works on following directions, sequencing steps and vocabulary. All things important for language development. And the best part, they just think it's fun, they don't realize you are working on their language development at all. Talk through the craft alot. Talk about what you have to do first, second, third and last. Talk about the supplies you need, label them to give them the words to request for them. Give them directions to follow, simple for younger kiddos and more difficult/multi-step for older kiddos. 1 step directions are good for 1-3 year olds, 3-5 year olds can usually do 2-3 step directions.

Keep it in the middle

If your little one isn't talking much or at all, or if you just want to increase their phrase length you can use this method to encourage language expansion/use/growth. When your eating a meal put everything in the middle of the table. The utensils, plates/bowls, drinks/cups, and all the food. Then everyone has to request what they need. This allows the adults to model the good language use and the little ones can do what they can to request. So if your little one isn't talking at all you can just require them to use a sign or a gesture or some form of communication and then reward them with their desired item. As they get better with what your requiring them to use you can increase your demands on them. Begin with close approximations such as for cup if they say "cu" then reward them with the cup. Slowly require more from them, "cup please", then "Want cup please", then "I want a cup please" and so on. Always reinforce their request with what they said but one step higher. So if they say "cup" you would say "oh you want a cup please" or "you said, cup please" that way they are always hearing the correct word and you are scaffolding them to go one step further than they are currently able to.

Offer Choices!

To get your little one to talk. Offer choices! Don't make all the decisions for them, give them some power! Showing them that communicating gives them power is one of the best motivators for them to TALK! When giving them their food, ask if they want the yellow or blue bowl, the sippy or big boy cup, the strawberries or grapes. Giving them 2 choices and having them verbally request one is a great way to give them "power" without you loosing power, your still choosing their 2 options. And the choice won't take forever:) If you give a 2 or 3 year old 5 choices it's too overwhelming and you'll be waiting a really long time for that answer. So offer 2 choices several times a day. Another positive of giving them choices, they will feel like "winners" during the day so they will be more likely to let you win some battles too, like taking a bath when you need them too, etc.
As their communication skills grow, increase the demands of the choice they make. Now they can't just say "yellow" for the yellow bowl, they have to say "yellow bowl". Once they are good with the 2 word requests, extend it more, "yellow bowl please", then "I want the yellow bowl, please" and so on.