In this workshop, participants acquire knowledge and training to enhance the development of language and communication skills in very young children. Infants are born with the innate capacity to learn language and come to infant care with both that innate capacity and the indispensable social context of family and culture through which they learn to communicate both verbally and non-verbally. The typical progression of development and ways caregivers can interact to enhance natural development are addressed through a variety of didactic and interactive learning experiences. Concepts discussed are:
· The importance of supporting the home language in infant/toddler care
· Language development in young (seeing, hearing, communicating), mobile (gesturing with sounds and first words) and older infants (one word to multi-word stage)
· Understanding language systems: phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics
· The active role of the infant and the infant's motivation to learn language
· Language input from caregivers (child-directed speech)
· The cultural basis of language learning
· Varying cultural approaches to language and communication
· Nonverbal components of language
· Environmental factors that have an impact on language development
· Strategies for supporting language, such as responsiveness, self talk, parallel talk
· Warning signs
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![[Training]](/images/layout/sub_nav_training_on.gif)
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