Learning a language takes place between birth and the start of group 3 (1st grade) of primary school. You are born with the ability to learn a language and then it is the job of parents and teachers at school to help develop the language further.
The baby time
As a baby you mainly learn to listen, both to others and to your own sounds. Babies learn to focus their attention on what they hear. From the age of 3 months, a baby starts babbling more and more and from 6 months a baby can imitate the sounds he hears around him. Around the first birthday, language skills develop more and babble will turn into words or parts of them.
Promote language development
What can you do to promote your baby’s language development:
- Babble or talk, sing and play as much as possible
- Read a book often so that your baby hears many words
- ensure there is little background noise when you are talking to your baby or when you are reading.
- Don’t talk too fast and speak clearly
- Name what you are doing and what your baby is doing. In this way he learns to associate certain movements and actions with certain words.
- Name objects that your baby sees or that you see.
Toddler time
Between 18 and 24 months, your toddler will begin to speak using two words to make themselves understood. Which sounds a toddler can or cannot pronounce during this time depends on the development of the muscles in the mouth and tongue and therefore differs per child. Slowly but surely, your toddler’s vocabulary will expand and he will learn to speak more words in a row.
Expand the vocabulary
How can you learn to expand your toddler’s vocabulary?
- Name everything for your child, such as things from your daily environment and things you see in picture books
- Speak slowly and clearly to your toddler
- Adapt to your toddler’s language level and make short sentences so that your child can understand you more easily.
- Do many things together with your toddler and state what you are doing
- Listen to what your child has to say and respond to it. This way your toddler knows that you are interested in what he has to say and will try harder.
Kindergarten
When your toddler is about 2 years old, he can go to playgroup. Here he will learn to communicate with other children of his own age and with the leaders of the playgroup. You may understand your child well at this time because you are used to how your child communicates and what he wants to say, but this does not necessarily mean that others can also understand him well. Your toddler will therefore try even harder to communicate well.