Ways to Promote Language Development

• Music lessons at a young age can help your child develop strong language skills. Susan Barr/Photodisc/Getty Images

  Though every child develops at his own rate, there are ways that you as a parent can actively promote the development of your child's language skills. There are a number of activities for your child to engage in besides speaking and listening that will help him develop appropriate or above-average language skills for his age.

Human Interaction

• Human interaction and verbal stimulation during the developmental years will aid your child's language skills beyond the toddler years. Studies of feral children and severely neglected children show a serious delay or even permanent incapacity to develop language-learning skills. One example comes in the case of "Genie," a girl who was kept isolated throughout her developmental years and never developed full linguistic capacity. This case provided evidence that human contact and stimulation in the early years of development will help lay the foundation for developing language skills even in adulthood. The website of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association provides examples of age-specific activities to promote language development from birth to 6 years.

Learning Through Context

• Research on how to effectively teach second-language acquisition has adopted methods from how children develop language skills in their first language. Linguistics professor Stephen Krashen's research has shown that children are rewarded for telling the truth rather than for using correct grammar. The 1983 documentary "A Child's Guide to Languages" provides an example of this in action. Krashen hypothesizes that if a child holds a teddy bear who is not wearing socks, and tells her mother "Teddy sock on," the mother would correct the untruth rather than the grammar. The child's mother replies, "No; teddy doesn't have a sock on," focusing on the context of the words. The mother did not correct the grammar by saying, "No; it's Teddy has got a sock on his foot." Using language as a tool to help young children understand the world around them in context is more effective than introducing and correcting grammatical-structure issues.

Studies in the Arts

• Studies show that starting music lessons at an early age can help with linguistic development. Regular music study has been proven to help children develop verbal skills beyond those of their peers. Start your child with formal music study during the toddler years to help develop language skills. Studies comparing children who did not study music to those who took regular classes proved that even grade schoolers showed vast improvement in verbal recognition and memory after starting music lessons.

Nonverbal Communication

• Use language to convey context and meaning in order to help your child develop her linguistic skills. Add body motions and nonverbal communication such as eye contact, shoulder shrugs, hand motions, and facial expressions to enhance the context of what you are saying. This will help convey meaning to your child that she will associate with the language that you are using.