Do Educational Toys Promote Early Childhood Development? (Language Development, Part IV)

Although science has been probing the area ofin their language development. The following are
language development for well over a century,some tips that parents can use in preparing their
researchers still ask the number one question,child for their future success.
"How are languages organized in the brain?"Continuously speak to your child not at them and
Language development can be defined as, thealso be a good listener. For your infant to 18
expression and vocalization of symbols andmonth old, speak in a calm and soothing voice and
sounds as perceived and interpreted by animitate their cooing and babbling which will
individual through the growing and learning process.encourage them to repeat the sounds. For your
Parents can recognize the beginning stages oftoddler, begin to correct the pronunciation in a
vocal communication through the "cooing" soundspositive manner and have them repeat the word
of and infant. Usually around 4 - 6 months aback to you that was pronounced incorrectly. Be
pleasant babbling of ba, ba, ba, or da, da, dadescriptive in explaining what you are doing and
begins. At 7 - 8 months a child begins to activelywhat you would like them to do. Read picture
imitating sounds that he/she hears. By the time abooks and have your child interact by pointing to
child has reached his/her first year they will havepictures and asking questions.
developed the ability to say a few simple wordsYour preschooler is now speaking in short
such as, Mama or Dada. By the time your childsentences, so ask questions that require more
reaches 2 he/she will begin to have a vocabularythen a one word answer, correct grammatical
of words and seem to understand almosterrors in a positive manner, be descriptive, explain
everything you say. They can put togetherin more detail and use larger sentences in your
phrases like, "my toy" and they respond toconversation. Now for your school age child,
commands.engage them in typical conversation using
By 3 your child's vocabulary has increasecompound and complex sentences, encourage
extensively and most of what he/she says isthem to use their imagination to create stories,
clear intelligible words and small sentences. At 4have them tell you their stories and ask plenty of
your child can repeat multiple syllable words andquestions.
will be able to pronounce most of the sounds ofIntroducing educational toys into your child's daily
their native language. By 5 your child understandsplay time is one way to open the door to the
and uses many descriptive words, their speech iswonderful world of communication. The
nearly grammatically correct and will speak usingconstruction and design of educational toys for
long sentences. At 6 your child should usethis age group have several attributes. Some
sentences that are descriptive with detail, saystimulate imaginative play, others promote
most sounds correctly and communicate easilysocialize with other children, some have an array
with other children as well as adults.of colors, shapes, sizes and textures and others
Although children vary in the development ofhave numbers and letters, all for the purpose of
language and speech, parents play the mostchallenging your child to verbalize thoughts, ideas
important role in their child's language success. Theand even emotions. So parents spend plenty of
way you engage your child especially from infancytime interacting with your children and use every
to 6 years of age will determine their languagemeans possible to help in the development of
development. The developmental milestonestheir language skills and don't be surprised if your
shown above, although not inclusive, will help youchild's vocabulary grows larger than yours.