After going through their first year of life, children’s speech ability should be stimulated more often and intense so they will grow optimally.
At the age of 12-15 months, their babbling ability increases, such as “baba, dada, nana”, can imitate the sound made by other people, start to be able to say a short word like “eat”, and able to understand a simple instruction.
Children’s speech ability will increase more at the age of 18-24 months. They have at least 20 vocabularies and this will increase to 50 when reaching the age of 2 years old. The children are also able to combine 2 words, such as “want eat”. Being 2 years old, they can also recognize various objects and names of their closest persons. Moreover, they are also able to understand and follow two instructions at once.
Entering the age of 2-3 years old, children can combine three or more words into a sentence. They have also understood names of colors and adjectives (like big-small, cold-hot).
Here are the stimulations that Moms should do on the children, adjust them according to the children’s age group.
Age of 12-15 months
This is the age when children like to explore. Moms could teach them more names of objects around them. When reading them books, you could ask the children to point at a picture that you just mentioned.
Another stimulation that you could do is by involving them in their daily activity. For example, ask them about their favorite toys.
Age of 18-24 months
Children in this age group have been able to follow simple instructions like putting a cup on the table, wearing shoes, and so on. Moms could play a doll with them, ask them to carry the doll or take it for a walk. Moms could also begin to teach them to sing some children’s songs.
Age of 2-3 years
Generally, children’s speech ability in this age group is getting better, you could interact with them. If you want, you could introduce them to letters and numbers, but remember not to be too ambitious to the point that they must memorize the letters.
Ask your children to do role play, find a role that they like and get involved in the play. For example, the children take the role as chef and Moms as the customer.
Don’t forget to keep this stimulation session to be pleasant so your children don’t feel like they are actually learning something. Don’t be discouraged if your children aren’t able to do what you ask them to do. The important thing is to do it continuously until they understand. Good luck!
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