Dressing up is great fun and playing different roles will expand your child's imagination. In fact you do not even have to dress up to do role play. Games involving different characters will allow you to introduce lots of new related language and stretch your child's creative play skills. Most types of interaction through play will have a positive effect on speech and language acquisition.

This document gives you a quick reference guide to your childs speech and language development up to 6 years of age.

Using everyday activities can be a great way to practice speech, language and literacy skills. These activities can also change a mundane event into a pleasurable one. The child may also not realise that you are practicing speech and language skills because the activity will be fun.

Play is absolutely vital to a child's healthy development. A child's exposure to play provides physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. Some research shows that up to 75% of brain development happens after birth, and the early years of a child's life are the foundation for healthy growth and development.

One way to judge your child's progress is to keep a record of their development. Keep a log of new words that they use and try to use those words yourself to reinforce them.

Listening and attention skills are the building blocks of speech and language development. The acquisition of these skills is vital in the early years if you want your child to be successful at school. The development of these skills is facilitated by interaction with others, with having a shared focus with others, and playing in an environment that is free of distractions.

An important aspect of learning speech is listening. A child learns new sounds and words by listening to those around him. This is why it is important to provide good, clear speech for the child to listen to.

Some children are late to start talking, or use very little speech. If this describes your child the first priority is probably to have their hearing checked by an Audiologist and/or see a qualified speech and language therapist/pathologist. 
There are also many fun activities that you can carry out to help encourage your child to make some sounds.

Young babies may not be talking but they are communicating in lots of ways through cries, sounds, facial expressions, looking at things and body movements. We must be aware of these things and try and interpret them because by responding to them we encourage the baby to communicate more.

Building a language rich environment is, on the face of it, is an easy thing to do. Unfortunately, in today's busy households and with the busy lifestyles of parents who have to work full-time, it is harder to find the time to spend with your children than many of us realize. However, there are many opportunities to use and teach language in everyday situations and create a good environment for learning.

Day to day interaction and play will develop children's social skills naturally. Children will take time to learn the rules of interaction such as turn taking and eye contact, but there are activities you can incorporate into your play which will help children understand these rules.