It's Good To Talk
The skill of conversation will help your child in so many ways as they head to school. Here are tips for encouraging a chatty child
Posted: 8 February 2009
by Laura Lee Davies
Share the experience From ‘one sock, two socks’ when your child is getting dressed, to observing what is the same and what is different about your day together. Children respond to the regularity of what they know and will comment excitedly when something is suddenly changed.
Provide the answer
You can offer your toddler the question and the answer to show her how conversation follows. So you might say, “What colour is that cat?” then add “It’s black and white, isn’t it?” This helps model the answers for children and they learn from that. (When they are ready, by about three or four, give them plenty of time to think and answer for themselves.)
Relax
Being chilled out will make the experience of conversation better for both of you, so don’t try it when you’re not in the right frame of mind. And don’t put yourselves under pressure; short bursts of chatting or reading are fine if your child is wriggly after five minutes.
Enjoy
If what makes you more relaxed when you are chatting is something completely different rather than storybooks – maybe gardening, or something you see on television together – your enthusiasm for that will come through and it will engage your child too.
Keep on talking
Even if your child isn’t talking at 18 months, keep communicating because it’s all going in. Some children just develop later. And as your children get older, keep up the conversations.
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