���˿���

Dr Guddi Singh explains why turn-taking is important as a building block for conversations as children learn and grow.

A video demonstrating some simple turn-taking game ideas for you to try.

Simple ball passing games can be great for teaching turn-taking.

Peek-a-boo is a great for engaging your child in one simple activity with you.

A game of hide and seek with a favourite toy can help babies' sense of 'object permanence'.

An article explaining the benefits of imaginative play for children's understanding of the world.

How a teddy bear can be used to model bedtime routines as a form of early pretend play.

Our Speech Lab film explores how sharing focus on babies' interests can help them to learn more quickly.

Joint attention can be easily built into routines like putting out laundry.

Simple clapping games can help children listen out for rhythm and increase their interactions with you.

How pots, pans and simple shakers can be used for gaining children's attention.

Taking your child on a sensory walk can encourage them to listen out for sounds in their environment. Try naming the things they hear.

Talking to baby about sounds as you explore the world can encourage them to listen and connect the words you say with the sounds they hear.

An article explaining how first words develop and which are likely to be children's first words.

Naming body parts is a way of helping children understand the words for parts of themselves through touch.

Your child's gestures can be used to direct your chat with them and make sure you engage with the things they're interested in.

A tips film explaining how actions and gestures can help with understanding word sounds.

The recasting technique can be used to correct children's mistakes and help them to build longer sentences.

Playing at the park can help with building action words into interactions with your child.

Getting children to think about the past and future can get them speaking in past and future tenses.

Asking lots of questions about your day or week can encourage children to talk about the past.

Help your child to understand opposites like big and small, tall and short, hot and cold.

You can build language for textures into the routine of sorting laundry with your child.

This game is great for encouraging early vocabulary and can be adapted for different ages.

Bath time can be brilliant sensory fun for learning early words.

Books can be great props to support children's first words.

An explanation of how you can expand on your child's single words by adding just one or two words when repeating back to them.

Activities like pegging out the washing can be a chance to get children following simple instructions.

Offering choices can help get children to expand upon single words.

An explanation of how to expand upon children's words to demonstrate how they can be used in longer phrases and sentences.

Speech and language therapists answer some common questions about how children learn to make different speech sounds.

Blowing raspberries is a great way to get children to engage with early non-speech sounds.

Two films explaining phonological awareness, your child's recognition of the different sounds that make up words in speech.

A demonstration of the importance of rhyme to children's phonological awareness.

An activity to challenge children's understanding of the initial sounds in words.

Our Tools for Talking films explain lots of different techniques that help to support children's language learning.

Our Speech Lab films demonstrate how key language learning techniques work through investigations with real families.

Our activities page is full of ideas of things you can try with your child at home. Activities are listed by suggested age range, but any may be used at any age according to your child's ability.

Information and advice for families on a range of conditions that can affect children's speech and language abilities.