Welcome to the last post of the series – children developing language. As mentioned in the previous posts, my mission for better hearing and speech month is to provide the community with information regarding strategies that can be implemented at home with the population birth-3.
Today’s post will focus on three strategies that most of you probably use already in your day to day. I will simply give you tips about ways to use them and perhaps use the strategies more effectively in your routine. The strategies are known as asking questions, waiting and expansions.
Children developing language will learn crucial receptive and expressive language skills by answering and asking questions. People are curious and learn about their environment through language. The primary way we get information is by asking questions. To help your children learn about their environment, practice asking them a variety of questions. If they do not know the answers then you can give them the answers and teach them.
There are some things you should avoid doing, such as asking too many questions too quickly, asking “what’s that” repeatedly or as your only question, and asking questions to which you and your child already know the answer. There are various types of questions you can use in your daily routine to stimulate your child’s language skills (e.g. Yes/No questions, choice questions, close-ended and open-ended questions). I will provide you with some examples of how to implement different types of questions with children.
Yes and No questions are also known as direct questions. They can be easily answered non-verbally and verbally. Your child can start by answering yes/no by using gestures such as nodding their head yes or shaking their head no, use signs and then answer using words “yes, no.” These are great questions for young infants with emerging language skills to practice quick simple responses (e.g. 9-12 months).
Yes and No questions limit the amount of language output required of your child to “yes, no”, therefore, it is important to mix direct yes and no questions with other types of questions that require more language expression. For example, you can combine yes and no questions with Wh questions (who, what, where, when, why).
You can use yes and no questions for simple day to day requests (e.g. do you want a snack, do you want milk?), but you can also use it to practice learning labels for items (e.g. is this a cow? is this a spoon? are those my shoes?).
You can probe for more language with both yes and no answers. For example, in play you can ask your child about the animals and say “Is this a cow?“, if yes, then ask “What does the cow say?” and wait for the correct response “moo.” If your child doesn’t say anything you can go back to yes/no and ask “Does a cow say moo?” If the answer to the question “Is this a cow?” is no, then you can ask your child “What animal is this?” If your child does not respond you can give them a choice “Is it a cat or a sheep?”
Choice questions provide the child with a limited number of options to choose from as their response. They can be easily answered non-verbally and verbally. Your child can answer these questions by using gestures such as pointing to the desired choice, signs and simple words. These are great questions to use to engage a child in conversation with emerging language skills (e.g. 12-18 months).
Choice questions can limit language responses and the participation of your child if they have increased language skills. Therefore, you can pair your choice questions with other strategies such as modeling language and requesting to target higher level language. You can also use other types of questions along with the choice questions. For example, you can combine a choice question with a close-ended or open-ended question.
It’s breakfast time and the entire family is in the kitchen and you have to decide what to eat. You can ask your child a choice question for drinks or food such as “Do you want milk or juice? Do you want cereal or toast? Do you want eggs or pancakes?” Options are endless. Then you can have your child answer for others or practice asking questions. For example, if daddy is cooking, you could say “I wonder if mommy wants milk or juice?” and see if your child attempts to say “Mommy wants juice.” If your child is talking in phrases you can have them practice asking questions and say “Ask mommy if she wants juice or milk” and see if your child attempts “Mommy, what do you want to drink?” or “Do you want milk or juice?” You can always simplify language for your child and have them only practice asking yes/no questions (e.g. Do you want milk? or Want milk?)
You can also ask multiple types of questions. For instance, you give a choice for food (e.g. do you want toast or cereal?) and then ask a closed-ended question for drinks (e.g. what do you want to drink?). As always if your child uses single words to answer, you can model language and say “I want milk” or “I want to drink milk” and see if your child attempts to imitate a longer phrase.
Close-ended questions allow the child to formulate his/her own response (they can’t say yes/no and don’t have a choice of responses), however, these questions do have specific answers. These questions usually take the form of Wh-questions (who, what, where, when). They can be answered by using signs or words. These are great questions to engage a child in conversation with increased language skills (e.g. 18 months).
Close-ended questions can be more challenging to answer for younger children or if the question requires advanced language skills. Just make sure to always adapt the level of complexity of the question to your child’s age and language abilities. For more information about child developmental milestones specific to answering questions, please check out the section “Answering Questions” in my post Stimulating Language and Speech in the Early Years – The Whats and Hows (Part 2)
I recommend integrating books into your daily routine at a very young age (6 months), it is the simplest, most inexpensive and versatile tool to elicit and stimulate language in children. For young infants and toddlers, I suggest using the pictures as your foundation for the story rather than focus on the words. Try not to get books that have a lot of writing. The books are to be used as a platform for creating conversations.
With toddlers (1-3 years old) I like using books with flaps and hidden items to get increased engagement. If reading a book where animals are hiding behind flaps, once I (or the child) open the door/flap I ask “Who do you see?” and practice having the child say or sign “horse” or “I see a horse.“
You can also practice answering a variety of questions using nouns or verbs. Depending on the question you ask, your child will need to know the concepts/words that you are using. For example, if you ask “Who is jumping?” your child needs to know what “jumping” means to answer correctly.
It is important to always give your child all the required information first. For example, you can point to the picture of a sheep jumping over the fence and say “Look, a sheep, the sheep is jumping, the sheep jumped over the fence” then ask “Who is jumping?” or “Who jumped over the fence?” and wait for the child to try (help them if they don’t do it on their own) and respond “sheep” or “the sheep is jumping” (depending on their language level). Similarly, if you want your child to give a verb response you could ask “What is the sheep doing?” and get the response “jumping” or “the sheep is jumping.”
Open-ended questions allow the child to formulate his/her own response and do not necessarily have specific rote answers (e.g. What did you do today? How do we bake a cake?). They give the child the opportunity to use more sophisticated language skills and knowledge. These questions usually take the form of Wh-questions (who, what, where, when, why, how). These are great questions to engage a child in conversation with advanced language skills (e.g. 2.5-3 years old) and give them more freedom in conversation.
Open-ended questions can be more challenging to answer for younger children or if the question requires advanced language skills. Once again, make sure to always adapt the level of complexity of the question to your child’s age and language abilities. Please refer to the previous section (close-ended questions) for a link to my post about child developmental milestones regarding answering questions for more information and examples.
You can integrate questions when you and your child are baking or cooking. You can change the questions each time. For instance, if you are baking or cooking a recipe that you have done numerous times, then you can ask higher level language questions. Say you and your child always bake cookies, the next time you bake cookies, don’t take the lead. Ask your child “What do we need to bake cookies” and see if they can list all the ingredients and materials – help them along the way “We need flour, eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate chips, bowl, spoon, etc.” Then ask them “What do we do first?”, wait to see what they respond and help them by providing the correct language model (e.g. “Mix the flour and eggs”).
Keep asking them questions along the way, make it simple for younger children and a little more complex for older children (4+). For example, “What do we do next? How do we cook the cookies? How long should we bake them for? How do we know when they are ready? When do we put the cookies in the oven? Why are they soft/crunchy? How do the cookies taste? Why do you like baking cookies? Who would want to eat cookies?”
There are numerous open-ended questions that can be asked throughout your day. Here are a few examples:
One of the most important strategies parents can use is to simply watch their children, wait for them to communicate and listen to them. You can gather so much information about your child’s communication abilities this way and will be surprised at how much your child is already communicating.
Communication is most effective if you and your child are facing each other, therefore, sit or lie down facing each other while you watch your child. Watch as they play a game, with a toy or read a book. Look at the subtle cues they give you. Observe your child’s attention, eye gaze (what they are looking at), body language and gestures, listen to their sounds and words. This will give you a lot of information about your child’s abilities and a guide to help them expand upon what they already have.
As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I am often guilty of talking too much and responding too quickly for the child. It is crucial to know when to just wait and not speak. If you give your child time to respond you may be surprised at how much they say. Sometimes children get so accustomed to the adults doing most of the talking that they may not see the need to talk. Waiting is hard but it will yield great outcomes for children developing language.
Try not to fill the empty space by talking and give your child time to think about your words and respond, whether its by answering a question or making a comment. The sudden change in the environment and silence will cue your child that you expect something from them. I have had children spontaneously speak many times by simply pausing and looking at them expectantly. Children process language at different speeds, therefore, some may need more time then others. You can count in your head and give them about 10-30 seconds depending on the child. If you get no response then you can repeat yourself or provide a model.
Make sure your child is engaged in the moment with you. Do not yell out a question as they are walking away (or distracted) and expect to get a response by waiting in that situation. You need to have them attend to you and the activity in the moment to use this technique effectively.
Just like it is important for your child to attend and listen to you when communicating, you need to give your child the time of day and listen to them. Fully attend to what they are trying to communicate (put that laptop or cell phone aside a few minutes). We are constantly distracted by the TV, cell phone, internet, other children and family responsibilities. Try to take a few minutes every day to interact with your children with no distractions to help increase and stimulate their language growth.
Expansion is the easiest of early communication strategies to use. Children developing language will start communicating through gestures then single words and then start to combine words into phrases and sentences. You need to figure out how your child primarily communicates and expand upon what they say. For example, if your child uses only gestures then use single words or at most 2-3 words. If your child uses single words then use phrases of 2-4 words.
You may be thinking, but what do you mean by expansion? What is an expansion? Basically, as you know I have spoken numerous times about modeling language for children. An expansion is a language model that expands upon what the child said. You say what the child said but in a longer form or grammatically correct form. For example, your child points to a toy. You expand by first matching the gesture – you point to the toy and then expand by saying the name of the toy “truck.” If your child says “truck”, you can expand by saying “truck, I want truck.”
There are different ways to expand upon your child’s language. First, you must use the previous strategy of watching your child. You need to try and understand what it is they are trying to communicate. For example, if they say “milk” you could assume that they are requesting and say “I want milk” instead of saying “white milk” or “cold milk.” Here are some examples of situations, child productions and possible expansions.
As always communicative strategies can be combined for a better outcome during daily routine activities. For instance, asking questions allows your child to provide a response, which you can then expand upon. Let’s say it’s bath time, you can practice having your child label body parts by asking “What should I clean/wash first?” If your child is non-verbal and points then you can expand by labeling body parts (e.g. hands, toes, arms, legs, back, belly, hair, etc.).
If your child is using single words and says “toes” then you can expand by saying “clean/wash my toes.” You can also ask questions about what your child might need. For example, at the end of the bath you can ask “What do you need?” and wait for your child to respond “towel” then you can expand by saying “I need/want a towel.” You can also talk about the towel and describe it (e.g. big blue towel, dry towel, wet towel, clean towel, fluffy towel).
Play time is the perfect time to expand upon what your child says using modifiers (e.g. shapes, size, color) and actions words. For instance, if you are playing with the farm set and your child says “moo”, you could say “cow, a cow says moo.” If your child says “cow”, then you could expand by using some modifiers and say “little/big cow, mommy/baby cow, white/brown cow.“
You can also expand upon utterances and target action words. For example, if your child says “cow eat” you could say “the cow is eating”, if your child says “cow is eating” you can further expand by saying “the cow is eating red apples.” Play time is the perfect time for you to provide various language models and expansions to help increase your child’s vocabulary and grammar skills. Communicative intent may not always be obvious in play but at least you can provide a variety of models for your child to choose from.
Going to the park is an enjoyable family activity and a great way for your child to explore their world. You can sit or lie down on the grass and talk about all the different things that you see. If your child is non-verbal and points to things, then expand by labeling what they point to (e.g. swing, grass, clouds, sky, tree, flower, slide, people, kids, bikes, etc.).
If your child is communicating using single words then you can expand upon their words and anticipate their communicative intentions. For example, if your child says “swing” you could expand by saying “push the swing”, “I want to swing”, “swing higher.” If your child says “cloud” you could say “I see clouds”, “fluffy white clouds”, “rain clouds”, “clouds in the sky.” If your child sees a ladybug and says “bug” you could say “ladybug”, “I see a ladybug”, “red ladybug”, “fly ladybug.“ If your child is pulling out the grass and says “grass” you could say “pull the grass”, “green grass”, “soft green grass”, “itchy grass.”
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