Supporting language growth for young children
- Comment and wait. This is a great way to ‘feed the language in’. See what he is interested in and make a statement about it. Use full sentences, but keep them simple. Give him a chance to say what’s on his mind – he may keep the topic going, or he may move on to another topic. That’s fine. Follow his lead.
- Wait. It’s important to pause after your comment. Wait up to ten seconds to give the child time to think and speak if they want to. If they don’t, try a different comment.
There are lots of different things you can say about just one situation, like for this simple picture:
| Kinds of comment | Examples |
| Inform – give information, and not just the main points | “Look at this girl riding on her bike.” “She’s got her feet on the pedals.” |
| Explain – give a reason | “She’s wearing a helmet to protect her head.” |
| Project yourself into the situation | “I love riding my bike around the park.” |
| Pretend/Imagine – make up some extra information | “I bet she’s riding to visit her friend.” |
| Feelings/Emotions | “She’s got a big smile so I think she’s really happy” |
| The future – what might happen next/later? | “She’ll have a drink after her ride” |
| Relate to the child’s experience | “Remember when we went on that big ride to see the boats in the bay?” |
| Relate to your own experience | “I fell off my bike once and got a big scrape on my knee” |
By Stephen Robinson, 2020, with some information adapted from ‘Learning Language and Loving It,’ second edition, by Weitzman and Greenberg
