Interaction with adults is essential for the development of communication skills in babies and young toddlers (Ages 0-2 years). The positive experiences they have talking, cuddling, reading, singing, and playing with educators help them support the development of language, attention, memory, social, emotional, and motor skills. Talking together enriches the care relationship between the educator and children.
In this workshop, educators will learn strategies such as parentese, range of tones, pausing, turn-taking, facial expressions, narrating, talking at a slower rate, repeating phrases and so on to engage children in conversations. They will learn to observe babies’ gestures or noises and what they see, respond to them with speech sounds and words, establish joint attention and comment on what they see. Discussion will focus on using Child-Directed Speech (CDS) to effectively engage toddlers in meaningful ‘play talks’ and facilitate the expansion of their language skills. Lastly, participants will use books, songs, fingerplays, as rich tools to engage children in language development. The workshop emphasizes practical application through group discussion, reflective sharing and role-playing to reinforce strategies.
