Early Language

The sensitive period for language is birth to age six. It is our duty during this period to give the child all they need to satisfy that inner desire for language.

There is a 'sensitive period' for naming things . . . and if adults respond to the hunger for words in an appropriate way, they can give their children a richness and precision of language that will last a lifetime. 

-Dr. Silvana Montanaro

When parents and teachers recognize and take advantage of the sensitive periods through which children pass, they can become more effective in supporting their learning and development. 

- How To Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way.  

We should give the child real objects from our environment before pictures whenever possible. One of the first Montessori Language works a child does is object to object matching. I was in our local Dollar Tree and found these lifelike safari animals. I purchased two of each animal so Lucy could work on not only identifying the animal but matching it as well. I placed them in a basket for Lucy to explore and she LOVES them. Using a work mat/rug allows your child the opportunity to learn boundaries with keeping their work on the rug.

Lucy is learning to place the objects back into the basket and carefully walk them to the shelf where she found them.

After a child can successfully match object to object you move on to object to picture. Here is a picture of Ava at age two matching jungle friends to picture cards. I actually took pictures of the figurines, printed them out, glued them on index cards and had them laminated. If you don't have time to make your own....Montessori Services has a ton of already pre-made vocabulary cards that are laminated and ready to go.  

You could also find pictures on the internet through google images and print those out like this. 

Picture borrowed from Dana's Pink Ribbon.

Another great way to immerse your child into language is through books. I purchased most if not all  the Hinkler  and Priddy books . I love the way each real life object is isolated with the coordinating word written underneath. These books are equivalent to flash cards but bound with easy access for the little fingers that will be flipping through the pages. 

My last tip is to S-I-N-G songs and recite nursery rhymes/poems. Songs and rhymes contain rhythm and rhyme, skills that help with speech and literacy development. I used this book of poems in my classroom. 

Here's another great one: