Babies and young children learn so much from their parents. You are their first educator and many of the things you do instinctively teach children about the world can help them learn the skills to prepare them for school and early learning.

Tips for supporting language development

At Sunny Days Children's Nursery we work in partnership with you to support and encourage your child’s development in many ways. We use chants and body movements of action rhymes to promote the development of speech and listening skills.

Nursery rhymes

Nursery rhymes help children become aware of the rhythms and rhymes of language. Using old rhymes and new rhymes you invent helps young children become familiar with the sounds of letters and words.

Here are ideas for using songs to build vocabulary.

  1. Change words in a familiar song , Sing Twinkle, twinkle brilliant star or silent star, gigantic star of flashing star. Use your voice to help illustrate the new adjective. Sing about a gigantic star in a gigantic voice. Sing about a silent star in a whispering voice.

  2. Using rhymes with actions can help build vocabulary and understanding of concepts. For example this is big and this small, This is big and this is small, sing along with me

  3. Other verse possibilities: This is tall and this is short. This is up and this is down… This is in and this is out….This is happy and this is sad….This is soft and this is hard… This is fast and this is slow…. This is here and this is there …