THE MANY

LANGUAGES OF

CHILDREN

Sandra Willis, Ph.D.

Fun City Parenting Advisor &

Founder of Inspire Children‟s Nursery

EFFECTIVE

COMMUNICATION is

a two-way process for

sharing ideas &

knowledge that

involves understanding

people: their needs,

skills, beliefs, values,

societies & cultures.

UNESCO‟s Central Principles for

Communicating with Children

Be Age Appropriate & Child Friendly

Address the Child Holistically

Be Positive &

Strengths-based Address the Needs of All

UNESCO‟s Central Principles for

Communicating with Children

Baby to 3 Milestones:

Up to 3 months

• Babies recognize the sound of their mother‟s voice from birth and

before, being aware of their first language within days.

• Babies are fascinated by faces and will copy movements. By five to

six weeks babies start smiling.

• They use different cries to express how they are feeling and can be

soothed by a parent talking.

• Around three months babies are making cooing noises.

Developmental Check:

Does your baby watch your face while you talk?

Does your baby turn towards your voice and sometimes join in?

Is your baby cooing and gurgling to herself?

• Babies communicate by making sounds and using gestures (waving

& pointing).

• They begin to understand routines, simple words and activities.

• They take „turns‟ in conversations using babbles.

• They love Sing Songs and Nursery Rhymes with actions.

• Short sentences and repeating words while playing is very effective.

Developmental Check:

Does your baby enjoy “chatting” with you by making talking noises?

Does your baby try and get your attention? E.g. if she wants

something she can‟t reach, does she shout, point or make noises?

Baby to 3 Milestones:

By one year

Still Face Experiment

• Toddlers are curious and actively explore the world around them.

• Their understanding of words and phrases grows quickly but they can

become frustrated when they‟re unable to make themselves understood.

• Using a child‟s name at the start of a sentence helps them attend to what

you‟re saying.

• Your child will understand between 200 and 500 words and can answer

questions about familiar things or experiences.

Developmental Check:

Does your child enjoy simple pretend games, for example with cars and

trains, shopping and cooking?

Does your child use more single words, putting two three words together,

e.g. “more milk”, “ daddy gone car”?

Does your child ask simple questions such as “what that?”, “who that?”

Can your child point out familiar objects in a picture book?

Baby to 3 Milestones:

By 2 years

Milestones - By three years

• Children will use new words and phrases almost daily.

• Children will be asking endless questions to help them learn and find out about

the world around them.

Developmental Check

• Does your 3 year old enjoy playing, talking and asking lots of questions?

• Do they invite you to play and join in simple games with other children?

• Do they play more complex make believe games, e.g. dressing up?

• Can they recognize how other people feel and try to do something about it?

• Can your three year old remember longer instructions and information? E.g.

“Where is mummy ?”, “What did you see in the park?”

• Does your child listen to, and remember, simple stories with pictures?

• Has your child stopped relying on pointing to get what they want, or only using

single words?

Baby to 3 Milestones:

By 3 years

• Talking is one of the most important

skills your child will learn. It seems to

happen naturally, but in fact you

have a very important role to play.

• The more you talk with your baby

and respond to their noises and

babbles, the more you help them

learn to communicate.

– Share a book with your child and talk

about the pictures

– Sing a nursery rhyme and encourage

your baby to join in

– Listen carefully to how your child

responds, and react back

Baby to 3: Recommendations

Offer your baby lots of toys, talk and make

play sounds about the objects. That way,

your child will hear different speech

sounds.

Your baby will love hearing the same little

rhymes and stories, and playing games

like peek-a-boo, over & over again.

Baby to 3: Recommendations

Maintain eye contact Imitate whenever possible

Baby to 3: Recommendations

Talking to your child can fit easily

into your daily routine.

Why not:

• Recite a nursery rhyme while

feeding your baby

• Talk about the things you see

while you are out and about

• Describe what you are buying

while you are in the shop

• Sing songs while you are

bathing your baby

• Share a book with your child

before bedtime

Age 3 – 5 Milestones

• Most children of this age go to nursery/school and understand & say lots of

words and sentences. They can use longer sentences and link

sentences together, e.g. “I had pizza for tea & then I played”.

• They talk to find out new information by asking lots of questions.

• They listen to longer stories and answer questions. They use language to

organize themselves and their play (imaginative play).

• Your four year old uses most sounds correctly but may still have difficulty with

“th”, “r”, “sh”, “ch” and “j”. Children of this age still find sounds within words with

several syllables tricky, e.g. escalator.

Does your child

like to talk & play with others?

enjoy sharing books with you?

plan games with others?

follow simple two part instructions?

Milestones: By 4 years

Does your child

understand simple “why” questions?

recall where they went & what

happened?

use longer sentences joined up with

words like “because”, “or” & “and”?

Can your five year old

listen to and understand instructions while they are busy with something else?

predict what will happen next in familiar events and routines?

organize their thoughts and put longer sentences together?

re-tell short stories in roughly the right order?

• Children learn how to listen, understand & share their ideas within the classroom.

• They have conversations, share information, make friends & explain how they are

feeling. They communicate to work out problems & organize thinking/tasks.

• They understand time concepts like the days of the week and time of day.

• They understand language such as “first/last”, “maybe”, “above” and “in between”

and words that describe sequences such as “first ….., next…” , “and” and

“because”.

• They like to talk about and explain what they are doing & what they do and do not

like.

Milestones: By 5 years

Top tips for reading stories aloud

• Do the voices

– Try to make sure each character talks differently – this makes the story come to life

for the listeners.

• Get with the programme

– Make sure you have a regular slot in which to read every day.

• Go for a journey

– If you have a regular reading time every day, choose a longer chapter book. It'll be

more of an experience for you and your listener, and helps build their memory and

understanding.

• Keep them guessing

– Ask questions every so often to find out what everyone thinks might happen next. This

can help to build the suspense and make it more interesting for your listeners...

• Make sure they're still with you

– Recap what's happened every few pages to make sure your listeners know what's

going on.

• Always leave 'em wanting more

– Quit reading at an exciting point in the story – maybe at the end of a chapter or even in

the middle of a sentence!

Top tips for

reading stories aloud • Do the voices

– Try to make sure each character talks differently – this makes the story come to life

for the listeners.

• Get with the program

– Make sure you have a regular slot in which to read every day.

• Go for a journey

– If you have a regular reading time every day, choose a longer chapter book. It'll be

more of an experience for you and your listener, and helps build their memory and

understanding.

• Keep them guessing

– Ask questions every so often to find out what everyone thinks might happen next. This

can help to build the suspense and make it more interesting for your listeners...

• Make sure they're still with you

– Recap what's happened every few pages to make sure your listeners know what's

going on.

• Always leave 'em wanting more

– Quit reading at an exciting point in the story – maybe at the end of a chapter or even in

the middle of a sentence!

Age 7 – 11 Milestones

• Your seven year old can listen when you ask a question or give them an instruction and

work out what‟s more important.

• They know when they don‟t understand and can ask you to explain, e.g. “Is the author the

one that writes the story and the pictures are done by someone else?”

• They can understand instructions with two or three parts that are more complicated, e.g.

“Choose a person from the story we‟ve just read, tell me how they feel at the end of the

story and why you think that is.”

Play word games!

1. Say a word and then think of the opposite, e.g. hot, cold

2. Challenge your child do talk to you without using yes or no, it‟s quite hard to do!

3. Describing word charades, your child thinks of an action, e.g. swimming, adds a describing

word, for example “swimming slowly” and acts it out.

4. Get a list of words from a class topic and have then put the words into sentences.

5. Encourage your child to find rhymes, e.g. happy/snappy and count the syllables, e.g. Cat-

er-pill-ar.

6. Make a list of connecting words, e.g. now, next, because, etc. and challenge your child to

use each one in a longer sentence

7. Tell a story with your child. You each say a sentence in turn to keep the story going.

8. Your child is getting better at taking turns to talk and listen in a conversation and will talk

about things other people like, not just about themselves.

Milestones: By 7 years

Milestones: By 11 years

• Your 11 year old speaks clearly and fluently and uses long and complex

sentences. They use joining words to make their language flow, e.g.

meanwhile, therefore, yet.

• They share ideas and information to help their thinking and learning and can

pose different kinds of questions to help conversations move on.

• By the age of 11, they get sarcasm and develop their own a sense of humour.

Play word games!

You‟re joking! – share jokes and funny stories with your child.

Story telling is important to your 11 year old for their school work and for their

friendships. Your child can tell you long and entertaining stories full of detail

and description.

Play story detectives – ask your child to tell you about the books they are

reading or the TV programs they are watching. Can they say what will happen

in the next chapter/episode and can they say why they know this?

Milestones: By 11 years

Encourage Reading Top tips to help your

child read for fun

• Set the example... We all know how much kids copy their parents. Make

sure they see you reading the newspaper or a magazine, a book or a recipe. In

copying you they will gain confidence and get to be great readers too.

• Be nice... Praise your child for their efforts reading – it‟s fine for them to make

mistakes. It's supposed to be fun!

• Make some noise... Encourage your children to read aloud to you, friends,

pets or toys.

• He ain't heavy, he's my brother who reads to me... Get older

children to read to younger ones

• It's never too early to start... Even babies love sharing a book. Point

out the pictures and encourage baby to babble away.

• Read it again, Sam! Children love to hear a good story again and again.

Plus, repeating actually helps to build your child‟s language.

Helping with reading:

5-7 years old

• Be positive. Praise your child for trying hard at their reading. Let them know it‟s all right to

make mistakes.

• Give them time. Let them make a guess before you tell them the word. Help them to get

the first sound or try breaking the word up into smaller sections.

• Point with a finger. Encourage them to follow the words with their finger.

• Don’t make them try too hard! It doesn‟t matter if you have to tell them the word

sometimes.

• Let them read their favourites. It's good practice to read the same books over and over

again.

• Ask lots of questions. Check they understand the story by asking them questions about

what happens. Use the pictures to explain what's happening.

• Don’t read for too long. A good ten minutes is better than a difficult half hour.

Activities to try at home.

• Give your child a list of things that they can find in the house and see how quickly they can

collect all the items.

• Create a monster dictionary, a family keepsake, a fairy tale. Ask your child to draw

pictures for each.

Bilingualism

THANK-YOU!

References:

• UNICEF's Communicating with Children – Principles and Practices to Nurture, Inspire, Educate and Heal - http://www.unicef.org/cwc/index.html

• National Literacy Trust's Words for Life - http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk