Making the most of playtime!
Children have fun, explore their world and learn all through play. Playing together provides so many opportunities for developing communication skills too!
Top tips:
- Get down to your child’s level during play: this way your child can look, hear, see, and respond to you – this helps them learn to begin to communicate with you
- Allow your child to lead the play: give your child the opportunity to explore the toys themselves and watch, wait, listen to them so they can lead the interaction and communication – they may communicate with you by using words, gestures such as pointing, or noises
- Mirror what your child is doing during the play then build on this: copy your child and then introduce new ideas – for example, adding in another car or making the cars go in a different direction
- Comment on what your child is doing during the play: use simple, key words such as ‘look at the big blue car!’ to model language to your child – try not to ask your child too many questions as this can confuse them and cause the conversation to be one-sided
