4 Back-to-School Resolutions to Promote Speech and Language Skills
With a new school year starting, now is the perfect time to promote and encourage your child’s speech and language skills! Here are some helpful tips in order to set your child up for the greatest success this school year.
4 Back-to-School Speech and Language Resolutions:
- Easy Voice: Avoid using a harsh voice, yelling, and shouting. This can help both parents and children maintain a healthy vocal quality. Modeling your own “easy voice” can encourage your child to keep his voice healthy too!
- Build Vocabulary: Targeting and explaining new “back-to-school” words can help to improve your child’s vocabulary. Increased exposure to novel words will reinforce these additions to your child’s vocabulary and will encourage usage.
- Read Aloud: Reading aloud to your child is extremely beneficial for language development. When reading stories, emphasizing and reinforcing new words will enhance vocabulary skills, and asking questions while reading encourages understanding. If age appropriate, ask your child to retell the story!
- Ask Questions: Talk with your child about the events of his day. Learn what activities occurred in the classroom, in the lunchroom, and at recess. Monitor for sentence structure and grammar, and emphasize accurate productions. For example, if your child says, “I goed to art,” respond with, “You went to art? How was it?”
Incorporating these simple tips can allow you to help your child improve his skills both in and out of the classroom! If you have any specific concerns about your child’s speech and/or language skills, a licensed speech-language pathologist can help!
Would you like to learn more about speech and language milestones? Click here to view our speech and language milestones infographic.