5 Everyday Strategies to Support Language Development.

With young children, some of the best opportunities for building language happen during everyday moments like playtime, mealtime, and story-time.  Here are 5 everyday ways to build language through meaningful everyday interactions.

Follow your child's lead

Notice what your child is interested in and join their world, whether it’s trucks, bubbles, or kitchen spoons. Use their interests as a bridge to connect, play, and build language together. For example, if your child is pretending to stir a pot with a spoon while you’re cooking nearby, you might say, “Stir, stir! You’re making soup like me!” or “Mmm, that smells yummy! What’s cooking in your pot?”

Why it works: 

Children are more motivated to communicate when they are interested and engaged. It opens the door for natural interaction and shared attention.

Get Face-to-Face

Sit or kneel so you're at your child’s eye level during play. Being face-to-face helps you and your child share the same focus, whether it's a toy, a book, or each other’s expressions. This kind of shared attention, called joint attention, is a powerful building block for communication.

Why it works:

It makes it easier to connect, exchange looks, gestures, and sounds, and helps your child learn how back-and-forth interaction works.

Pause & Wait

After you ask a question or make a comment, pause for 5 - 10 seconds. Give your child time to respond with a word, gesture, or look. SLP's refer to this as “expectant time delay” , which is a purposeful pause that shows your child you're waiting for a response.

Why it works: 

Waiting shows your child that you’re listening and gives them time to process and respond at their own pace.

Add Language to Everyday Moments

Add language to your interactions by talking about what you and your child are seeing, doing, and feeling: “You’re stacking the blocks!”, “Uh oh! You dropped it", "I’m putting it back on top." "We did it!"

Why it works: 

Talking during everyday routines makes language more meaningful and easier for children to understand, remember, and use. Research also shows that rich early language experiences actually support brain development by strengthening the brain pathways needed for communication.

Tune In & Respond

Notice and respond to your child’s sounds, gestures, facial expressions, or words even if it’s just a glance or a babble. Smile, repeat their sounds, comment on what you think they’re trying to tell you, or simply pause and tune in to establish a moment of shared attention.

Why it works:

The ultimate goal is to be tuned-in and responsive.

Being responsive helps your child move from emerging communication (making sounds or gestures without a clear purpose) to intentional communication (doing things on purpose to get your attention).

Why It Matters

These everyday strategies are grounded in evidence-based practices and informed by current research in early childhood language development. 

These strategies promote connection, build brain pathways for communication, and support language growth through simple, responsive interactions that fit naturally into your daily routines. References and further reading are listed below.

Additional Resource

• This printable handout from the Hanen Centre introduces the OWL strategy. Observe, Wait & Listen (OWL)

• This free, printable handout from the Hanen Centre aligns with the strategies shared in this blog and offers simple, everyday tips to support your child’s language development.

  Hanen Centre - Language Building Tips