The first word is a big milestone for many children and parents. But long before talking, babies learn to interact with their parents and the people around them through vocalizations, eye gaze, facial expressions, and body language. These skills are called prelinguistics. Prelinguistics are often referred to as the “building blocks of communication,” as they establish a foundation that prepares children to use language. If you’ve ever looked at your child and immediately known what they wanted or needed without a word being spoken, you may have been interpreting their prelinguistic communication!
Prelinguistic skills include, but are not limited to, the following:
Eye contact
Examples: looking at parent/caregiver’s face, watching as parent/caregiver talks
Joint attention
Examples: looking between parent/caregiver and a toy, book, or object
Imitation
Examples: copying parent/caregiver throwing a ball, putting a hat on
Gestures
Examples: pointing, reaching arms out to be picked up
Facial expressions
Examples: smiling, laughing, making a silly face
Turn-taking
Examples: making sounds back and forth with a parent/caregiver, pushing a car back and forth to a parent/caregiver
Anticipation
Examples: getting excited because something fun is going to happen soon
Understanding cause-effect
Examples: pushing a block down, laughing, and doing it again
These skills are developed during daily routines and play. Play often seems like a silly activity that is “just for fun.” However, play is an important part of a child’s cognitive development, including their development of speech and language.
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” - Fred Rogers
You can support your child’s development of prelinguistics and early language skills by providing them with rich, interactive experiences during your everyday activities and play. Although they may seem simple, the following strategies are excellent ways to facilitate learning:
Get excited, use big pauses, and wait expectantly for your child to look at you, vocalize, or demonstrate another response.
If your child looks at you, makes a sound, or gestures, respond! Show them that their actions hold meaning by talking back to them.
Point and gesture to draw your child’s attention to a nearby toy, book, or object.
Create opportunities for your child to communicate with you. Instead of anticipating every need, see if your child will show you or tell you what they want or need. If they see their cup, will they reach for it? Will they look at the cup and then look at you?
Teach cause and effect by showing big reactions. Knock a toy down, make a silly sound, and do it again!
Imitate how your child plays, and then show them a new way to play. If your child likes to bang a block on the table, bang along with them, then show them how to stack one block on another.
Narrate aloud to your child throughout the day. You can describe what you are doing, what you see your child doing, or talk about the events that occur around you.
It is exciting to watch a child start to interact and communicate with the world around them!
I hope you enjoyed this "funtastic" blog post!
-Marissa Swanson, MA, CCC-SLP
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