Your child's success in school and later life may depend on how well she communicates. Children are not born with good communication skills, according to the University of Delaware, but can learn to listen and understand, express themselves clearly, notice other people's emotions and resolve disagreements. As an effective communicator, your child will give and receive information, send consistent messages and check that she fully understands people's meanings before responding.
Hearing
Three children in every 1,000 born in the United States have hearing problems. Undetected, these problems cause delays in the language, learning and speech skills needed for success at school, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. If your child's hearing loss is identified early, you can obtain appropriate services for him and, if necessary, get an assistive hearing device.
Listening
Listening skills help your child pay attention to what people say. As a baby, she recognizes your voice, understanding "No" before she is a year old. By school age, she has sufficient memory skills to remember and decode full sentences. Help your preschooler develop her listening and understanding by speaking in short, simple phrases. Introduce her to new words by reading books together and talking about the things she sees and hears.
Expressive Language
Your baby communicates first by crying. He may say "Mama" and "Dada" at about 12 months. By two years of age he knows 50 or so words, and begins to put them together in two- or three-word phrases. He makes mistakes as he learns the complex grammar of his native language, for example, saying "I goed" instead of "I went." In his early school years, he develops language skills further by practicing speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Clear Speech
Your child learns to use her lips, tongue, teeth, cheeks, lungs and vocal cords to speak and make herself understood. A range of early feeding experiences, including eating tough, chewy foods as a toddler, help to exercise the muscles she needs. Some complicated combinations of speech sounds, such as the "squ" in "squash," may still sound immature until about age six. Nursery rhymes, making faces into mirrors and playing with nonsense words all help your child acquire the clear speech she needs.
Non-Verbal Language
Non-verbal behavior accounts for more than 80 percent of communications. Your child learns how to communicate in a social context. He learns how to recognize a question and how to respond to it, how to take turns speaking, how to stick to a conversation topic or interrupt politely, and how to bring the conversation to an end. He learns how good eye contact improves communication, and how he can use hand and arm gestures, facial expressions and body language to make his meaning clear.
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