Author: Tsung Tsing Mission of Hong Kong Joyful Place
Children have been growing every day since birth. However, due to the rampant outbreak of the pandemic in the past three years, young children have had fewer opportunities to be exposed to external stimuli. Many parents are understandably concerned that their children’s language development may not keep pace with that of their peers. What are the expected performances in language comprehension and expression for normally developing infants and young children? And as the primary communicative partners, how can parents promote their language abilities?
Language Development Milestones from 0 to 3 Years Old
Some people may mistakenly believe that children need to learn to speak before they can express themselves and communicate. In fact, even newborns to six-month-old infants know how to use smiles or cries to express emotions and even begin to babble, producing speech-like sounds. Additionally, they gradually acquire various “prelinguistic skills,” including establishing eye contact, locating the source of sounds, and responding to adults’ intonation and speech.
From around six months to one year old, children’s prelinguistic skills become more mature. They can establish joint attention with communication partners, take turns in play, and begin to develop imitation abilities. At this stage, infants gradually understand common words and commands such as “car” and “sit down.” They also start to use their own sounds and gestures to convey meaning and learn to produce approximate two-syllable words like “mama” and “dada.”
The period from one to two years old is a time of rapid development in children’s language abilities. In addition to responding to simple questions with facial expressions and gestures, such as “Do you want a cookie?” and “Is that a cow?”, they also start to speak and use various words to express different communicative intentions. For example, they greet others with phrases like “good morning” and “bye-bye” or point to a balloon and say “balloon” to make a request.
As for children between the ages of two and three, who may be attending preschool or nursery, they can understand questions like “What is this?” and “Where is it?” and even initiate questions for adults. They also gradually use two-word combinations, such as “subject + action” (e.g., “the dog is eating”), “action + object” (e.g., “take off shoes”), or “object + adjective” (e.g., “pretty flowers”).
Techniques to Enhance Children's Language Abilities
The learning environment for infants and young children is crucial for their developmental progress. If parents can provide appropriate stimulation, it will have a positive impact on various aspects of their children’s development. As speech therapists, we often emphasize “parent-child interaction,” hoping that children can receive language input through play and enhance their language abilities. The general principle of parent-child communication interaction can be summarized by the letter “OWL”: “O” stands for observe, pay attention to the child’s interests and play, and join in the game to create communication opportunities; “W” stands for wait, let the child initiate communication, and avoid dominating the game or communication process; “L” represents listen, pay attention to the child’s expressions, and respond promptly.
For some parents, “waiting” is not easy, especially when children are slow to speak or can only express themselves with a limited number of words. Naturally, parents may feel anxious and may constantly ask questions or request that their children speak. However, we encourage parents to use descriptions instead of asking questions because when parents “narrate” the child’s or their own play situation, children can listen to language input related to the game while playing, allowing them to become familiar with relevant vocabulary and sentence structures.
For example, when a one- or two-year-old child is playing with a shape-sorting toy, parents can simultaneously describe the names of the shapes or use verbs to describe how the toy is played with (e.g., “put,” “pat,” “pick up”). They can even use two-word combinations like “go to mommy” or “Chun Chun put” during the game. Similarly, children over two years old begin to enjoy pretend play and playing “cooking” is common in many families. Parents can use this as an opportunity to enrich their child’s knowledge of food or utensil names. When the child is playing chef, parents can use various phrases to describe their actions, such as “put it in the bowl,” “cut the orange,” “the chicken wings smell delicious,” and so on.
Ultimately, every child is unique, and their developmental progress varies. However, there is no doubt that the role parents play is crucial. With appropriate methods, parents can undoubtedly cultivate their children to become “Little language geniuses”!
