Category: Tips & Advice

Learn how to create a language rich environment and support your child’s language and literacy development.

What Is A Language Rich Environment Anyway?

The first thing you must be thinking is: what the heck is a ‘Language Rich Environment’? Well, you’re in for a real treat with this blog because I love talking about this! Language Rich Environments are simply surroundings that help children to develop their language and literacy skills. See, I told you it was simple! Creating a space that enables your child to develop these skills is essential to their learning later in life. Think about it… language is the basis for everything we do! Even mathematics is often based on language, meaning that if a child does not have a good grasp on language, it can affect them all throughout school and the rest of their lives.

Encourage Language And Literacy Development

Now, when I talk about the ‘environment’, I don’t necessarily mean the physical environment. If you have a quick look at this document (Parent’s Guide), you’ll be able to see the milestones for Language and Literacy development down the right hand side. A ‘Language Rich Environment’ is everything, from the books you read with your child, the conversations you have, the opportunities for them to see the written word in real life etc. Below are some pointers on how best to encourage language development: 

1. Above all else, the main thing I want you to get from this article is for you to be positive and praise every language attempt from your child, even if it’s not quite right.
2. Don’t be afraid to speak to them like you would another adult, that’s how they learn the basic rules of grammar. What I mean by this, is don’t baby-down what you’re saying. They don’t need to know all about what your friend Karen’s been up to with her new boy-toy!
3. Don’t ask too many questions. This is a trap lots of people fall into. If you want to, or need to ask them a question, give them plenty of time to process what you’ve said before repeating or rephrasing. A side note, if you do need to repeat a question, try to use the same words as before, otherwise it can become quite confusing for young children. 

Language And Literacy Development Can Be Fun

Now for the fun part! Here’s a few ideas to get you started with fun language activities and games you can do:

For Babies

Play Peek-a-Boo, sing songs and rhymes, tell me what you’re doing as you’re doing it, chat with me (copying my sounds), read books to me and let me explore them.

For Toddlers

Share stories with me, sing songs with me, help me make actions to songs and rhymes, tell me the names of things as I’m exploring, let me hold books, talk to me about the illustrations, give me chunky writing tools to explore, talk to me about sounds you can hear, explore animal sounds, play games with instructions, let me help you with the shopping eg ‘Help me find the carrots’, give me simple options e.g. ‘Apple or pear?’

For Younger Children

Encourage me to talk about books, let me mark make with different objects (Pinterest ‘Mark Making’ for loads of ideas), play with puppets or toy people, tell me step by step what we’re doing, use lots of new words, play listening games eg Simon Says, or Ready Steady Go, make up silly sentences where all the words start with the same sound, talk to me about places we’ve been and things we’ve done, give me simple instructions eg ‘Put your shoes in the basket’

For Children Approaching School Age

Play treasure hunts, when reading stories to me ask me open questions e.g. ‘What do you think will happen next? Why did that happen?” play rhyming games, play I Spy, put on puppet shows, give instructions using letter sounds e.g. ‘Can you j-u-m-p?’, make number plates for my cars with me, make a pretend shop with me.

As you can see there are so many things you can do to encourage language and literacy development. I bet you’re doing loads of these already and you didn’t even realise! I bet you can think of heaps more too. 

A Love For Books Is Important

The last thought I want to leave you with is that books can change children’s lives. Encouraging a love of books will help your child’s development more than you ever thought possible. Do your best to make them fun and exciting, even if you’re not a reader yourself. Thank you for reading this blog post, I hope you’ve learnt what a ‘Language Rich Environment’ is and how it can help your child. The next post will be about Early Physical Development.

Sleep Regression – One of the hardest things to deal with when you have children. We discuss why, when and how to survive.

As any parent of a young child knows sleep is precious and when you don’t get enough of it life is hard. This is why sleep regression can be so painful for parents.

What is sleep regression?

Just as you think that your little bundle has settled into a lovely routine, sleep problems appear and destroy it. This is where your baby will wake more frequently at night and some even fight or refuse sleep altogether. This phase (and remember it is only a phase) can last for a few days to a few weeks.

But sleep regression is not always the problem and you need to trust your instincts as a parent. If you believe that something else is the problem then follow it through with your GP or Health Visitor.

When does sleep regression occur?

The most common times for sleep regression to occur are 4 months, 8 months and 18 months. Although every time your beautiful baby learns something new they seem to have a sleep regression. I should warn you though, don’t be lulled into thinking it is only at these 3 ages that you get a sleep regression. It’s just not true. It occurs when they learn to roll over, start walking, learn new words and when they are teething. When you think every huge developmental stage has passed they start potty training and it starts all over again! But now it’s because they need a wee!

What should you do?

I am a firm believer in a bedtime routine, it’s worked for all of my children. You have to find what works for you. It could be a routine or it could be co-sleeping.

This is how it works in my house. We have our evening meal (they eat what we eat even my 15-month-old), then we have a bath, clean our teeth and a story. Then both boys aged nearly three and 15 months are in bed by 7 pm. Sometimes it’s easy, and they just go other times it’s like trying to wrestle a T-rex in jelly. The Important thing is that we stick to our routine and are consistent in our expectations. Anytime we have had a regression they eventually fall back into routine and life carries on by using this method.

How To Survive?

So, when sleep is limited or even non-existent, how can you possibly survive and get everything done that you need to. This could be work, getting your children to school, errands to run, food shopping and that is without trying to keep the house semi habitable!

The most important thing is to know your limits (yes mums, we have limits, even as brilliant as we are). So tuck your cape in your pants and accept that not everything is going to get done. Prioritize – The children have to get to school, you have to eat something but for one night could you just get a takeaway, and as for the house and cleaning this really is something that can take a back seat and it will all still be there tomorrow.

The second thing is to accept offers of help, whether these are from your mum, your partner or another Mum friend. This does not make you a failure as a Mum. It does not mean that you can not cope. It means that you are human and are at a difficult stage in your life and you need a helping hand and a smile.

Parenthood

This parenting thing is difficult and often stressful. It makes us doubt our abilities and instincts. We look for help and advice everywhere from google to amazon books. What we need is to find a good support network, this could be family, friends or Mums just like you!