Play with Language
By playing with noises and sounds a child has the opportunity to learn about making different sounds and the affect they have on other people. With encouragement to make different sounds a chid learns important steps in communication - listening, copying, taking turns to speak, as well as understanding words and learning to say them.
- Talk to your child whenever you are with him and let him see your face when you speak.
- Play finger games and make a noise alongside the game e.g. fingers walking making a clicking sound for each step.
Make your hand jump like a frog an accompany it with a croaking sound, or walk like a spider and make another appropriate sound for a spiders quick legs.
- Play rhyming games with accompanying actions such as “ this little piggy went to market” “Down at the bottom of the deep blue sea, catching fishes 1-2-3eeeee – lift child up on the count of three.
Play with toy animals and help your child make the different animal noises. Later look at pictures and do the same.
- When looking at books, use actions and noises to go with some of the pictures e.g. telephone – ‘bring-bring’ then pretend to pick up the receiver and say ‘hello’ etc.
Playing with sounds involves listening to them as well as saying them. When your child babbles he is practising speech sounds and if you join in the game he may learn to copy some new sounds
- When your child say ba-ba, da-da or ma-ma, copy him and say it back or say it in a slightly different way eg ‘baba’ or baby, ‘mam’ or mummy.
Speak in a lively way and let your voice go up and down to make it interesting to listen to.
- Have a large piece of card with a small hole in it. Encourage your child to push things through the hole. Begin with just one toy.
You sit on the other side of the cardboard and encourage your child to ‘talk’ before you send the toy back. If he makes a sound you pop it through the hole.
- Make a ‘train’ out of boxes and as you push it round the floor, make a train noise ‘ch-ch-ch’. Encourage your child to do the same.
- Cut a round piece of paper into a spiral snake shape with the snake’s head in the middle. Lift the snake’s head up and make a hissing sound (s-s-s). Encourage your child to copy and let the snake drop when he tries to copy.