Many young children face the issue of communicating clearly. So, we have brought some language development activities for toddlers to help them learn better. These activities can help them work on their skills while having fun. You can easily teach your child alphabets and other important lessons through these activities. So, read on to know more.
Top 11 Language Activities For Toddlers
1. Telephone Play
The fun language activity for toddlers can help improve their communication skills. Set up two toy phones in the play area. You can also decorate the phone booth with funky colors, to appeal to your little one’s imagination. Now act as if you are calling him and the phone is ringing. Encourage your toddler to answer the phone. Playing this activity your toddler will learn phone etiquettes and improve his conversation skills (1).
2. Puppet Game
Buy some soft toys, dolls or puppets for your toddler. Make him converse with these imaginary friends and polish his communication skills in a fun way! (2)
3. ABC Matching Game For Phonetic Learning
Write the alphabets on a small piece of cardboard paper and ask your toddler to color them. Cut out pictures from a magazine and keep them aside. Ask your toddler to match the alphabets with the beginning sounds of the objects in the pictures. The activity uses the play way method to teach your toddler his letters phoneticallyiXA systematic study of how humans produce speech sounds.
4. Singing Together
Singing is a fun activity that you can do as a family. It will help your toddler enjoy working on his language skills. You can also use this play way method to introduce him to nouns, adjectives, and verbs!
5. Places And Things:
Here are other language development activities for toddlers. Point out different objects at your home and ask your toddler to name them. It will help your toddler improve his vocabulary without much effort. You can play this game in different settings, including the garden and supermarket, pointing and naming other items you see.
6. Complete The Sentence
The simple activity encourages your toddler to frame complete sentences. If he asks for a banana, you can ask him “Do you want a banana?” Encourage him to answer in a complete sentence. It will help your toddler learn to string the words together to make coherent conversation. It will help him learn to express himself better and boost his confidence too!
7. Reading Fun
Read books to your toddler at bedtime every night. Storytelling is a great opportunity to bond with him at the end of a long day. Read him a story and ask him related questions to improve his listening skills and speech abilities. You can show him the pictures that illustrate the story, which will improve his identifying skills. It can help improve his vocabulary too!
8. Join-The-Dots
Draw a dotted outline of the alphabets on sheets of paper. Hand out a new sheet every day to your toddler along with pencil colors in different shades. Help him join the dots for practicing fine motor skills. It will help him identify and write each letter.
These simple activities will surely make learning a lot of fun for your toddler! Try these expressive language activities for toddlers at home and watch your toddler’s language skills improve dramatically. Remember, a little patience and innovation on your part can encourage your toddler to learn better!
9. Building blocks
Building towers not only entertains but also cultivates language skills. Use words like up, down, build, big, and little, to name a few. Introduce numbers and colors, explaining each block addition. Encourage your child to give directions, fostering communication (3) (4).
10. Make animal sounds
Display animal pictures, name the animals, and mimic their sounds. This aids toddlers in practicing language sounds and recognizing sound meanings, vital for early reading (5).
11. Tongue twisters
For a playful approach to phonetics, introduce tongue twisters like ‘She sells seashells by the seashore.’ Rhyming games help children identify different sounds in words and understand that words consist of smaller speech sounds. Progress from simple tongue twisters to more challenging ones to enhance pronunciation and rhythm skills (6).
Communicating is a survival skill and children must start learning languages early. If your child is still in the nascent stage of learning a language, here are a few language activities for toddlers you could try. These activities use exciting ways to engage and encourage your child to learn a language. These simple language skills will improve your child’s speaking ability. Although they do require a little bit of effort on your part, they are worth the effort since a child will grasp reasonable control over their vocabulary skills gradually. So, try out these fun activities today with your child and assist them in learning new languages.
Key Pointers
- Incorporating language development exercises into a child’s daily life can help the child learn better.
- Children typically begin uttering their first words around 12 months old.
- Language development involves five stages: Cooing or pre-talking, babbling, holophrastic, two-word, telegraphic, and later multiword stage.
- To improve your child’s conversational and vocabulary skills, try incorporating activities such as telephone play, puppet games, and ABC matching games.
- Engaging in expressive language activities can significantly enhance your toddler’s language skills.
With engaging activities, you can aid the language acquisition of your toddler. Watch the video to learn more play activities to encourage their language development.
