You may be wondering about the best ways of playing and talking with your grandchildren in order to help them learn and develop.
Well, a very simple method is to follow their lead.
Watch the video below for an explanation from speech and language therapist Nicola Lathey.
Today we're going to talk about how to follow your grandchild's lead as they're playing .If you hear a sound, talk about the sound. If your grandchild does an action, talk about the action. Have lots of fun together and really think about what might be happening in their thought processes in your own grandchild's head.
By following your grandchild's lead, the child is really enjoying the fact that all of the focus is on them. So whatever they do, you just go with it and provide words for the child's thoughts as they play.
It really encourages those positive interactions around an activity and it extends your grandchild's thoughts as they play. This will help them to think about new words to say. So don't worry about how your grandchild plays with the particular activity. Just follow their lead and make sure you're having fun.
A simple technique for teaching grandchildren new words
A really simple way to help speed up children's language learning is to pay attention to all of the things they're focusing on and talk to them about those things.
If you see them looking at something, talk about that thing. If they hear a sound, talk about the sound and what's making it. If they perform an action, name what they're doing.
A good way to think about it is talking through all of the things that they might be thinking but aren't quite able to say yet.
The more they hear the words you say, the more they connect the words with the things happening around them and that they see. Eventually, it will click and they'll be using more words themselves - you're laying those foundations.
Following your grandchild's lead - more information
Our Speech Lab series explains a little more about the reasons to follow the lead of your grandchild.
