Watch and listen to your tamaiti | child and talk with them about what they are interested in. The more words tamariki hear, the richer their language learning will be.

Talking with tamariki regularly strengthens their speech, language and social learning and builds a strong base for learning to read.

Tips for talking together#

Talk in your home language or languages#

Young tamariki are amazing language learners and can learn more than 1 language at a time.

Your home language is important and is a rich language base for tamariki to transfer to new languages.

Language learning takes time. It’s usual for knowledge and understanding of language to be a step ahead of what tamariki can speak or express.

Tamariki often combine different parts of the languages they speak. This is a normal part of their language learning process.

Over time, tamariki learn the distinct features of each language and can switch between languages based on who they are talking to.

Back-and-forth conversations#

Back-and-forth interactions that respond to infants, toddlers and young children are important for brain development. Tamariki are also able to use new gestures, sounds, words and sentences and learn how turn-taking in conversations work.

You can help keep the conversation going by looking for and commenting on what children are doing or noticing.

After you’ve had your turn talking, leave space for your tamaiti to answer in their own way with sounds, words or body language.

Reading and telling stories#

All types of books and stories support tamariki to enjoy and experience a variety of words, phrases and narratives.

Telling stories about future and past events helps develop imagination, thinking and understanding of the world.

It is good to let tamariki enjoy books in their own way, so they know their interests and ideas are important. Sometimes tamariki will be interested in 1 page, only look at the pictures or will want to read the same book over and over again. It’s okay if you do not finish the book every time.