Talk your child clever

"Talk Your Child CLEVER"

Having been exposed to the amazing Early Childhood Development program called BrainBoosters, I want to share with you some of the many interesting facts that I have been exposed to...

The following information has been written by Kerren Reis, courtesy of BrainBoosters.

Poor language is often the reason why children under-perform at school.

FACTS:

• Language cannot be acquired on it's own - there MUST be relationships and conversations with other people.
• Research shows: babies learn more language from their parents than if they are left in front of the television.
• Seattle Children's Research Institute = TV on, affects the number of words we speak to our children per hour....it drops from 941 to 171.
• A child must hear a word 500 times before it becomes part of their vocabulary.

So how do we correct this?

• Simple! Talk all the time to your child. Start from birth. Did you know that there are approximately 2000 nappy changes that will take place with your child from the ages of 0-2 years. Therefore 2000 opportunities to talk to your child.
• Sing songs, tell stories, recite rhymes, read.
• Use meal times to teach conversation skills - talking and LISTENING!

What to do?

• Limit TV time - when your child does watch TV, watch with them and TALK about what is happening.
• Make eye contact with your child - this helps to create good listening skills and teaches respect for one another.
• Don't use baby talk - use proper language and vocabulary no matter how young the child is.

What NOT to do:

• Don't test your child by asking "what is that? / what is this?" - rather ask them to "Show me..." / "find the..." / "touch the..."

LANGUAGE is the code for LIFE - so talk your child clever!