Angel Avery
How can you incorporate language development into your infant room?
Diapering/toileting times:
Discuss what you are doing as you change a diaper. ‘I am changing your diaper. I going to remove your pants and take off the dirty diaper.” Count the number of snaps on the onesies. Talk about 3-D materials hanging above the changing table. What color is the ball? It’s blue. What color is the owl? The owl is brown.
Feeding times:
“I am making you a bottle.” “I am adding 8 ounces of water to 3 tablespoons of formula.” “You drank 6 ounces, only two more to go.” “Carrots are good for you.” “Carrots are orange.” “You have three crackers.” This encourages math talk as well as nutrition. Science talk could include talking about how carrots grow in the ground or how milk comes from a cow.
Fine motor:
“How do we make this toy go?” “We push on the top and then the balls spin.” “We put the circle in the hole with the same shape.” Explain how to use the toys. Explain what the children are doing whether it is working or not. Naming colors or other attributes of the toys while children are using them also encourages vocabulary development.
Science:
“The sun is shining today.” “The fish is swimming.” “The fish is blue.” “The fish needs food one time a day.” Talking about the weather and class pets are just two ways to add science talk to your daily events. Think about photos you may have displayed. Are there animals, plants or other science items you can refer to?
Display:
“Do you see the baby with the blanket on the wall?” “Is that a photo of mommy?” “There are three dogs in the picture.” (That’s math too!) If you have 3-D hanging items, show them to the children while walking to the changing table. Point out what the infant might see. Name the colors, what is hanging, what it means.
Math: Already mentioned some examples above but you can literally count anything. How many friends are here today? How many days until your birthday? How many toes or fingers do you have? How many rattles did we play with today? How many hours until mommy picks you up? Simple statements throughout the day can add a wealth of math talk.
Infants may not be speaking yet, but hearing language helps them learn that words have meaning—and what those words mean. So, when they do start talking, they have already been exposed to a large variety of words.