General Tips 

The following are suggestions for how to facilitate speech and language development from infancy to preschool age in the home environment. 

1. Read books to your baby often.  Books that are simple, repetitive, and colorful are great to start with.
2. Play imitation games with your child such as “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake”.
3. Imitate your child’s vocalizations, even if he/she is not using any true words.  This lets your child know that you want to communicate.
4. Model environmental and animal sounds when playing with toy animals and cars.
5. Music activities such as singing, listening to music, reciting nursery rhymes and finger plays are great activities that provide rhythm and intonation for speech development.
6. Talk to your child about things you are doing together.  Teaching concepts through routine activities throughout the day is a great way to stimulate your child’s language development.  Playing, shopping, cooking, and taking a bath are all times that are great for language stimulation.
7. Model correct production of sounds during natural activities in daily interaction with your child.