Language Development

What Did You Say? Activity for an individual child Age group: 30-40 months Duration of activity: 15 minutes Enhance your child's listening skills and auditory discrimination with this silly activity. Review a picture book or magazine with your c...

How to Help a Preschooler Who Stutters You may be concerned if your preschooler starts to stutter and stammer a lot. Don't worry about it. Stuttering and stammering are common at this age due to the lag between a three-year-old's ability to thi...

Three-year-olds aren't able use words at all times when they are angry, frustrated, or frightened. ...

Sharing Adventures: Reading to Your Two-Year-Old Two is a terrific age for reading to your child. Your toddler wants to build her vocabulary and will eagerly sit to hear stories that offer her new words to learn. But reading books to your todd...

Your Toddler's Development: Building Vocabulary One thing about most two-year-olds: You can't get them to shut up. Your toddler is constantly talking, talking, talking. Your child wants you to understand her experience, just as she herself is be...

Print out and use this checklist to help in an initial diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome in your child. You can find more checklists on Asperger's syndrome here. ...

Speech delays should be investigated sooner rather than later. ...

Print out this list of nutrition vocabulary words and ask your children to define them. They can practice their research skills by using the dictionary to look up any words they do not know. ...

Dictionary Name Game Required: Dictionary Pen and paper What's in a name? A great opportunity for learning new words—with the help of a dictionary. During breakfast, snack time, or any time you and your child want to expand your vocabularies a...

Action WordsDirectionsIntroduce these words to your child and both of you do the actions together STRETCH, LEAP, SLIDE, RUN, CRAWL, FALL, SPIN, and TURN. Once your child understands what each word means and how to do the action, put on music and ...

How to Have a Conversation with Your Three-Year-Old Your child's improving language skills, combined with his increased attention span, makes sustained conversations possible at age three. And the more conversation, the better. Your modeling o...

Nonstop TalkMaterials Kitchen timer or clock Directions The object of this game is to talk nonstop for one minute about a chosen subject. Everyone writes one or two subjects on a piece of paper and puts them in a hat. Divide into two teams. You ...

Three to Six Years: Dietary and Developmental HighlightsAround three, children become increasingly social, more independent, and even more fun to be with than they were before. Preschoolers are particularly playful people who can be quite jovial ...

Magic BagTime 10 to 15 minutes Materials Old purseSmall items that can't be swallowed, like model cars, playing cards, animal cookies, old key sets, little books Directions Your child will want to share the wonder of each discovery if you fill a...

Finish the very silly sentences in this printable and you will reveal tongue twisters. ...

Backward DayTime All day Materials Common items used for self-care Directions Do your day backward. For example, you might begin the day with dinner, brush your teeth before you eat, put on your shoes before your shirt, or comb your hair and the...

Abbreviate ItTime 10 to 15 minutes Materials None Directions Teach the concept of abbreviating in a playful way. One of you thinks of two letters that the other has to turn into a phrase that matches the abbreviation. For example, FS could mean ...

BackwordsDirections Choose a word, then challenge your child to reverse the letters of the word (in his head or on paper) and say it backward. For example, tree becomes eert, car becomes rac, and so on. If you like, start with simple one-syllable...