The daily activities families engage in with their children, including eating, drinking, interacting, playing, entertainment, and hobbies, as well as the conversations, dialogues, and exchanges of opinions, desires, and needs they engage in, along with the organized and spontaneous development of language. Language is the gateway to their unlimited understanding of knowledge, people, life, and the future. This learning directly impacts children’s learning and the fulfillment of their diverse aspirations as adults. A sample of family activities and linguistic activities that encourage learning and build ambitious individual personalities for the future can be summarized as follows:
The family is the primary language teacher for children in early childhood
We know that families are educated, or semi-readers and writers, and instinctively make every effort to communicate with their children through gestures and verbally to develop their perceptions and linguistic skills in their natural living environments. However, to strengthen and regularize the family’s role in this context, we recommend the following ten activities:
1. Talk and listen attentively to children when working, playing, and engaging in activities together, using clear and correct language.
2. Read with children at regular times each day and whenever they request it.
3. Take children to libraries to browse books and resources, build language skills, and choose from a variety of reading materials to read at home.
4. Designate a suitable place in the home for reading and writing activities.
5. Store books and other reading materials in a visible location that children can easily access.
6. Store writing materials, such as stationery, pens, crayons, and the like, in a place easily accessible to children.
7. Take books and writing materials with you when leaving the house for more than an hour, so children can use them, especially when they are able to read, write, draw, and color.
8. Have children observe family members’ reading and writing activities, providing lively and fun opportunities for copying, imitating, and learning how to accomplish such tasks.
9- Draw children’s attention to the writings they encounter at home, on road signs, in markets, and various advertisements.
10- Encourage children to rely on themselves to obtain things and fulfill their various needs, including food, drink, clothing, and hygiene, even if it takes more time than the family usually allocates.
Language Activities for Infants at Birth to 6 Months of Age Getting to Know the Family
Such activities include:
1. Crying, making sounds, and moving their bodies from side to side.
2. Listening and responding to sounds around them.
3. Vocal intonations and laughing at themselves and others.
4. Enjoying the family telling a story.
5. Smiling when the family smiles at them.
6. Paying attention and responding to their name.
7. Taking turns when playing and singing with another child or family member.
8. Picking up objects with their fingers.
9. Transferring objects from one hand to another.
Family Activities and Activities for Infants to Learn Their National and Foreign Languages
Examples of these include:
1. Talking to the infant during various daily activities, from eating to using the bathroom.
2. Repeating the infant’s name until they learn to distinguish it from other names.
3. Exchange roles with the infant several times when playing together.
4. Respond to the infant as if family members understand what they are saying.
5. Smile at the infant when they look at each other and smile at family members.
6. Playfulness and humor when playing with the infant.
7. Look directly at the infant when their name is called.
Here, the mother is expected to communicate with the nursery teacher to clarify the infant’s communication mechanisms with family members, and what they mean when they cry, scream, or make certain sounds, words, and other hand and body gestures. They are also expected to provide the family with feedback on the infant’s ways of expressing their desires and needs.
Family Activities and Activities for Children Learning Language from Birth to Eight Months
A. Listening and Talking to the Infant, such as:
1. Listening and talking throughout the day, paying attention to the types of crying or screaming the infant makes, the physical gestures they make, the sounds they make, and the body movements they perform.
2- Take enough time (don’t rush) when feeding, cleaning, and bathing your baby, while singing and smiling at them. This way, your baby learns that others understand him and that they take turns talking together.
B- The baby listens to the sounds and conversations around him, such as:
1- Talk to the baby about what they are doing together. For example: “I see you playing with my fingertips?!”
2- Tell the baby verbally and behaviorally about the type of food the family is providing and the extent of their love and care.
3- Give the baby simple directions using both verbal and gestures. Tell him verbally and gestures that the bowl he is trying to touch, for example, is hot and could hurt him. Teach him to undress by verbally and by moving his arms upward. Show him in a mirror how to remove a shirt, then ask him to raise his arms to remove it, as you just saw.
Reading to Infants from Birth to Eight Months
A- Infants’ desire to be close to family members, such as:
1- Many people believe that families can teach their children to read from birth. The first purposeful beginning in this context is for the child to accompany the mother, father, and family members while they read…and to accustom them to listening to them while doing so. The child’s overwhelming desire to accompany the family at all times and in all places makes it easier for them to accustom themselves to listening to reading and to picking up some letters and linguistic sounds during reading.
2- Allow the child to change the course of the reading process whenever the family notices their desire. If they notice movement and fidgeting while reading, then you can switch to a game they like or do another activity they enjoy together.
B- Infants use all their senses in learning, such as:
1- Infants desire to do anything with paper and books. He turns the pages, tears them, puts the pages in his mouth, chews them, folds them into any shape, and touches them with his fingers to feel their smoothness and roughness. Leave him to do this as long as the books and papers are worn and there is no harm in doing so.
2- Provide your infant with large illustrated pages and talk to him through them, using gestures and direct eye contact.
Family activities and events to develop children’s hand muscles for writing from birth to eight months.
A- Teach infants how to use their hands and fingers, such as:
1- Help your child develop their hand and finger muscles by giving them paper and foam pieces to play with, hold, squeeze, and fold into balls and other shapes.
2- Encourage your child to use their fingers and hands to hold or pull anything.
3- Play with your baby by holding and shaking a rattle in front of him to hear its sound and see its movement. Then, give it to him, hold his hands on it, and move them with the rattle several times. Then, let him rattle endlessly until he annoys you and leaves the room. Or, give him another toy that makes no sound or makes a soft sound when playing with it.
B- Teach infants that they can recognize and do things, such as:
1- Observe your baby to see what he can do, then provide him with toys and tools (that are harmless to his body) that match his interests and skills, such as: plastic toys and blocks that can be folded, others that make sounds, and wooden tools that can be banged on the floor to produce sounds or observe specific movements.
2- Hang a toy or colorful plastic objects or other objects that make sounds on the top bar of the baby’s bed…then encourage the baby to get up and try to touch and move them. Remove these toys as soon as you notice the baby’s ability to grasp them and pull them down.