Keeping Routine Language… Routine
With the fast-paced lifestyle of most parents—juggling sports practices, gym classes, back-to-school nights, and everything in between—finding time for language development can feel daunting. Luckily, it doesn't have to be! In this article, we’ll explore the importance and benefits of focusing on language development during daily routine activities. The three biggest factors that help improve language development during daily routines are:
Frequency: One advantage of routines is the frequency with which you can focus on developing language with your child. While you may not realize it, each daily routine you complete together is an opportunity to expand vocabulary and encourage language use. These routines include brushing teeth, getting dressed, mealtimes, bathtime, and bedtime. When you add up these 5- to 20-minute activities, you'll discover over an hour of DAILY opportunities to work on your child’s language development!
Consistency of Language: Now that you’ve established your daily routines, it’s time to discuss what kind of language to incorporate. As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts, nouns are a great place to start for children with little to no language. Label things they use every day, such as their toothbrush, articles of clothing, favorite foods, and various mealtime items. After your child has developed a basic vocabulary of everyday nouns, you can start introducing more functional language. This is where core vocabulary comes in, allowing you to build on those nouns and create meaningful phrases. Some examples are brush, wash, put, eat, and drink. With just these few words, you can model short phrases like “Brush teeth” or “Brush hair,” “Wash hands” or “Wash face,” “Put on shoes” or “Put in sink.” These new words open up real communication for your child, providing a multitude of phrases for true functional communication.
Tip: Use the same simple phrases consistently. Repetition is key to reinforcing language development!
Anticipation of Events: Lastly, let’s talk about fostering independence. By continuing to work with your child daily, using the same vocabulary in routine situations and encouraging them to repeat single words or phrases, they will begin to anticipate your prompts and models. After enough repetition, your child will anticipate you saying, “Put on shoes,” and eventually shout it out before you can! The beauty of routines is that your child becomes so familiar with them that they can anticipate what to expect, which, in turn, builds their confidence.
Tip: Encourage your child to predict what happens next in the routine by pausing at the end of a phrase for your child to fill in the blank or ask your child, “what do we say”. This anticipation supports not only language development but also cognitive skills like sequencing and memory.
As parents, we know that sometimes it's the smallest moments that make the biggest impact on our children. We here at Mondy’s Mission are excited to support you along this journey! So, let’s turn everyday moments into powerful tools for your child’s lifelong language success. The journey starts now!
