Children are programmed to develop speech and language from birth, with the first five years being the most critical, continuing throughout early childhood and into adolescence.
In the first five years of life during the development of new nerve cells in the brain, the stimulation of language development is essential,
Lack of stimulation during this time, may cause the child to progress more slowly or end up with poor communication skills.
As nannies, we use various techniques which assist with this, spending lots of time talking, singing and reading to the children in the language which is preferred by the parents.
In the early stages of language development, the brain is programmed to hear speech sounds and begin to imitate them. Babies like to make sounds on their own initially, but later, they try
Around 18 months old, a child usually has a vocabulary of between 50 and 150 words. At this age children begin to put a couple of words together to form a sentence that is sometimes called “telegraphic speech,” such as “mama’s ball” or “mama’s ball pulls.” By age two, they typically use more than 300 words and understand about 1,000.
Around the age of three, children begin to use language for all sorts of things. Not only do they try to get what they want by asking, but they also talk about past experiences and even begin to use it for pretending. In the preschool stage (4 ½ years) they begin to understand and use the rules of language to express possession of something, connect thoughts and quantify. Their language increasingly resembles that of adults.
By the time children enter elementary school, they continue to expand their use of oral language and learn to read and write. Children progress through middle and high school, and they continue to expand their vocabulary, refine their grammar skills and write with greater complexity, as well as continue to develop their reading comprehension skills.
Techniques we use out as nannies to help stimulate language development:
Early year’s children
- Verbally respond to a babies vocalizations.
- Talk to babies.
- After around 6-months, we use shared attention and gestures. We point and name things using an exaggerated voice to explain the things they see.
- Sing to the children.
- We use songs to communicate things such as time to go to bed, time to wash your face, time to clean up, etc.
Older children and pre-school
- Have conversations with the children to ask about their recent events and to explain what they are currently doing.
- Make up stories with the children where everyone contributes.
- Give the children full information about events and always ask how they feel about it.
- Always ask questions which makes them explain and vocalise.
How we recognise development
- Things like eye contact, attention span and focus demonstrate the development.
- We listen how they pronounce words.
- If they can understand simple directions.
- How much they repeat themselves.
- If they lack empathy.
- If they avoid conversations.
Do you require childcare services?
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