Building Your Child’s Ability to Communicate: Reading

Reading is one of the most beneficial things you can do with your child. In the early months of life, your child will not understand the things you are reading to her, but she will understand many other important things from reading with you. She will understand that sitting on your lap and hearing your voice is pleasurable. She will come to understand that a person’s voice moves in a certain rhythm, and the sounds she hears repeat themselves in certain patterns. She will learn that you are interested in what is on the page for some reason, and she will eventually become interested, too.

As time moves on and you continue to read to her, she will come to recognize many words you say and relate them to her real life experiences. She will see that the pictures in the book relate to what you are saying with your mouth. She will come to understand that the marks on the page are called letters, and that when you put them in certain groups called words, they mean something. She will learn that books tell stories that are enjoyable to hear and think about. As she matures, she will come to understand that she can learn just about anything she wants to know by reading. As she hears you read and learns to read herself, she will develop a rich vocabulary which will allow her to express her feelings and ideas and send them out into the world. She will learn to speak, to write and to think from listening to you read.

Building Your Child’s Ability to Communicate: Talking

Building your child’s ability to speak and to understand others is a three-pronged endeavor. It includes talking to your child, listening to your child, and reading with your child.  This blog will focus on talking.

A child learns much from conversation. Conversation, and the vocabulary that develops because of it during the early years of a child’s life, helps to build your child’s cognitive power. In conversation, words are symbols consisting of sounds created by the vocal chords. For a child who does not yet have a vocabulary and who has not mastered the capacity to get meanings from sounds made by the vocal chords, this is indeed a complex and challenging learning situation. Remember that listening to and getting meaning from sounds requires the ability to associate these sounds with something familiar to the child. This is more complicated than you might think, particularly if this task is analyzed from the point of view of the child. Remember that your child is beginning with zero vocabulary, and does not even know that vocabulary exists.


Very young children need consistent speech stimulation, and parents should converse frequently with them. Some studies of child behavior indicate that children will make earlier attempts at speaking and will jabber and make conversational mimicry if, during the early months of their lifetime, they live in an environment where they are talked to frequently. Even at an early age when you may not think your child is understanding you, it is important that conversation (even if it is a one-way chat) occurs frequently. The entire first five-year period of a child’s life is critical to building vocabulary and developing language skills.


Children begin to develop a “word recognition” vocabulary before they can speak. That means he will recognize and be able to respond to many words before he can say them himself. You can enhance your child’s ability to recognize words by clearly repeating simple words for him. When you are putting on his shoes say, “Shoes.” Repeat the word “hand” as you stroke your child’s hand. When you see a dog strutting by, point and say, “That’s a dog. Dog.”


A child who is spoken to as if he can understand will soon learn to understand. He will develop a keen intellect and a powerful means of expressing his thoughts as he listens to you.