A New Way Parents Can Support Their Child’s Development

Guest blog post by Oisin Hurley

As a new parent it is normal to be anxious. There are many stresses involved such as; is my child crying too much? Are they eating too little? Will I bond with them or will they bond with me? What if I forget my child while shopping in Aldi and only realize when I get home! All of these are genuine concerns new parents have voiced.

There are external pressures to manage such as what school should her or she go to? Where is best to live in order to provide for a family? All of this along with keeping yourself and a little one alive and well. There are many things that are beyond our control, keeping germs away, teething, nappy rash, tumbles and injuries are part and parcel of growing up. Many parents say they often wonder what their child will become, what kind of personality will they have, will they have enough friends in school, will they be happy, will they be successful in what they set out to achieve?

Education is a huge area of concern for parents, particularly in relation to their own. Often times when a problem arises for a child around the area of Speech and Language development it takes a long time to see a therapist to diagnose a problem. For example, figures from 2015 report showed 15,000 people were waiting for a speech and language therapy assessment. Thankfully these numbers are moving in the right direction over the past few years. Yet it still remains much too high for a service of such critical importance.

What if I were to tell you that there is a simple action that can be taken that requires very little time and effort that can help your child’s ability to learn and develop? While there is no silver bullet, you can start by spending a small portion of your day (30 minutes) exposing your child to more language by reading, singing, and playing with them.

Research shows that the more words your child hears in the first 3 years, the more likely they will be to succeed in school. Spending this time engaging with your child not only increases there vocabulary but it strengthens the bond between the two of you. What’s more is that 1 in 10 children are now at risk of experiencing early learning difficulties, which has shown to be reduced by exposure to increased language in the home environment.

To combat these striking statistics Talk2MeMore have developed a new app that is effectively a Fitbit for words. The app monitors the amount of words your child is exposed to each day delivering feedback on what a child has just heard. It also offers practical suggestions of how to enrich your child’s environment such as what books could be read in order to expose them to more. It is a tool to allow the parent to know what their child is experiencing with incentives to improve their language environment. This revolves around quality and quantity. This can help relieve anxiety and set your child up for when they are ready for school. Reduced anxiety in this department can lead to a better relationship between you and your child. This researched app is showing early signs of attributing positively into developing a more language rich environment for children.

Talk2MeMore are offering a 7-day free trial of this exciting new app. To find out more visit their website to get started today.

Oisin Hurley

photo sources: Shutterstock