Advice for parents who have children with Speech and Language difficulties for whom English is an additional language.

Things you can do to help your child:

  • Continue speaking in your own language at home
  • Keep words and gestures consistent
  • Keep language simple, use lots of repetitions and speak clearly
  • Use gestures, facial expressions and body language along with speech
  • Encourage all attempts to communicate
  • Share nursery rhymes and stories from your culture/language with your school
  • Play word association games e.g: think of the names of five fruits, animals etc. This will help in improving your child’s vocabulary

Advice for Education Staff/Parents regarding Children who are acquiring their additional language within normal limits.

  • Parents should be encourage to speak the language that they feel can provide the best speech and language model
  • Supporting the development of the home language will enhance the learning of English
  • It is alright for children to speak in their home language in school and mix their native language and English in a sentence.
  • The quality of parent-child interaction is most important
  • Children learning an additional language may say nothing for a very months as they go through a silent period. This is a natural process
  • Give the child sufficient time to listen and become familiar with the new language (English) in school
  • Bilingualism has a positive influence on the child’s development
  • Concepts learnt in their native language can be transferred to other languages
  • Recent research suggests that learning to speak more than one language has a positive impact on the child’s cognitive development.

http://www.londonsigbilingualism.co.uk/

Useful tips on facilitating speech and language development in young children.

Here are some tips on how parents/carers can support their child’s speech and language development:

  • Use short and simple sentences
  • Comment about the activity that your child is engaged in
  • Help your child to build their vocabulary by introducing new words in a meaningful context
  • Role-play and other play activities are fun ways of exploring communication in children
  • Use gestures, body language, facial expressions along with speech to improve child’s understanding of spoken language
  • Be a good listener. Give your child adequate time/opportunities to respond
  • Create a need to communicate by encouraging your child to make choices, pretending not to understand, pointing out towards objects, asking yes/no questions.
  • provide a good speech and language model.
  • Include fun activities (e.g. Simon says) for gross body imitation, non-speech sounds as well as speech sounds in your daily routines. Mirrors are great for children while engaged in the imitation task.
  • Praise your child for all attempts in communication. A hug, smile, happy face, thumbs up can all have positive effects.
  • Seek help early if your child has difficulty understanding or speaking
  • Read to your child daily. Story time is very effective in building a special bond between parents/carers and children.
  • Practise at home to help your child to carry over targets from school.  
  • Please do not force your child to talk.
  • Maintain a communication book and make a note of your child’s achievements, strengths and needs which can be shared with teachers