Discover the many benefits of talking to your children
An increasing number of parents are aware of the influence that their behaviour has on the development of their young child.
MBOMBELA – Several such parents joined the Penryn Prep learning support team on May 18 for insightful talks on the topics of language development and why talking to your child is important.
The expertise shared by language therapist, Gillian Scorgie and occupational therapist, Megan Bense included interesting facts, practical advice and red flags that parents need to pay attention to.
As Scorgie pointed out, children whose parents engage in conversation with them hear, on average, three million more words than children who are excluded from conversation. The child that is talked to shows marked development over other children, such as the ability to self-regulate behaviour and using self-talk to problem-solve.
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Some of the practical tips shared with parents included:
• Talk to your child while driving. Have a real conversation with questions and turn-taking.
• With very young children, build the expectation that you want them to communicate and respond to you.
• Reading for 15 minutes a day adds approximately one million words a year to your child’s vocabulary.
• Maths and science ability is strengthened through the use of related words. For example size, orientation, and sequence. Parents can, for example, count the number of houses in the street leading to the child’s house, the number of which the child must also know.
• In terms of emotional development, parents need to praise the process, not the person and also praise specifically and not in general.
• Language development is affected by aspects such as attention span, body posture, and sensory integration.
• Screen time in excess of 90 minutes per day has an effect on attention and learning ability.
Bense highlighted some of the red flags parents need to be aware of and which could hamper language development, such as:
• Children not reaching their development milestones.
• Inability to move the tongue independently from the jaw.
• Poor fine and gross-motor skills.
• Difficulty in sequencing.
• Poor attention.
• Poor posture.
• Breath holding.
• High-pitched voice.
• Poor body awareness.
It is advised that parents monitor these and address any concerns to the child’s teacher.
Bense suggested more paired reading with children and plenty of sensory play.
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