Stepping Into Books

Learning to talk is one of the most important tasks your toddler will accomplish. Your child's language might seem to grow slowly at first. Young toddlers still use jargon and gestures as they try to talk to us. But once your child begins to use words with purpose, you will hear new words used every day!

You can help your child's language grow as you talk together and read together. This guide contains suggestions to help you support your child's growing language ability. You will find ideas about how to talk with your toddler, as well as ideas for sharing books together.

You can begin by finding your child's age range in the two developmental charts that follow. Each chart has two lists: How Your Child's Language Is Growing, and How You Can Help.

When you read through the list, How Your Child's Language Is Growing, you will see some things that your child can already do well, some things your child is just beginning to do, and other things that your child is not doing yet.

You can help your child's language grow by doing the activities in the list, How You Can Help. Notice that you can do many of these activities while you talk and read with your child. These are the best ways to help your child's language grow.