The Importance of Routines For Kids and Opportunities For Learning Language
Hey moms and dads!
Today, I’ve written a post on the importance of routines in a little one’s life, and the wonderful opportunities routines provide for learning language!
We all have routines. Whether it is a morning routine, a work-out routine, a going-to-bed routine, we have them to help make our daily tackles that little bit more tolerable! By definition, a routine is a “repeated exposure to something”, which in turn provides great opportunities for repeated language exposure! Routines are especially liked by children because it helps them predict what comes next. Bath-time, bed-time, mealtime, changing and dressing routines provide wonderful opportunities to develop understanding and speaking skills. Simple routines are also really important to a child’s well-being and overall development.
Here are some reasons why routines are awesome!
• When regular routines are used with children, they soon learn how activities are sequenced. This broadens their general understanding of situations.
• Routines create a wonderful opportunity for parents to use language acquisition techniques (such as “Say What You See” technique, expanding your child’s words and sentences, repeating words).
• Routines help children structure their own thoughts, and eliminate any surprises, given they know what to expect next. Why not start off a routine with a song, or a specific word. Then engage your child by talking to them about what you are doing. .
Although routines follow a similar sequence of events each time they are carried out, they do not have to be rigid to be effective. Flexibility should not cause a problem, as long as your child knows what is ultimately going to happen. Nor does a routine always have to start with a physical action or direction, it can be started by a song, a word or a gesture. For example, if an adult sings the same song each time they bring their child to the changing mat, the child will soon learn that that song corresponds to changing time!
Similarly, if an adult sings the “clean up” song and begins tidying toys away with their child, this will indicate a clean-up routine of putting toys into boxes, and back on shelves, letting the child know playtime is over...for now!
Think about how you can use some of these techniques in your everyday routines!
As always, I’d love to hear from you, so get in touch at hannah@elyhq.com. For more insights, go to www.elyhq.com and follow us on Instagram @elyactivities.
