What Is the Role of Parents in Supporting a Child's Language Development?

Parents, especially the mother, know their children better and have more experience with them than any specialist. The mother is considered a child's first and best teacher and the most influential figure in their healthy language development. A child acquires language from their surrounding environment; therefore, children whose parents talk to them frequently about diverse topics and spend quality time with them develop higher language skills than children who spend their time alone, with a domestic worker, or watching screens isolated from their social environment.

Engaging the child in daily activities such as play, shared reading, and conversing at various times throughout the day—such as mealtimes, playtime, and bedtime story reading—all contribute significantly to boosting children's language skills and deepening emotional bonding with parents. Parents must also make the child's environment stimulating for language and cognitive development. This includes providing age-appropriate books and toys, taking the child outside the home and talking about and describing things and situations, creating opportunities for the child to mingle with other children such as in daycare, play areas, and family gatherings, and carefully choosing digital content the child watches, while limiting the time spent in sedentary and isolating behaviors, such as spending long periods alone or using screens.

The role of parents in language development is important across all age stages, but its importance is underscored in the first five years of a child's life, which witness rapid cognitive and language development. That is why specialists emphasize the importance of language stimulation for the child through talking to them and engaging them in fun, educational activities that support language acquisition during this sensitive golden period of development.

One misconception among some parents may be the belief that a child who has not yet spoken does not understand their surroundings and does not benefit from such activities. However, research indicates the contrary: language-stimulating activities should be part of a child's daily routine starting from their earliest months, and they have a significant impact on the speed of a child's language development, as well as their fluency, expressiveness, and the efficiency of their language skills in the short and long term.

Research also indicates that linguistic communication and interaction with children are important in both quantity and quality. Responding to children, their needs, and their questions, interacting with them, looking at them while speaking, showing enthusiasm for what catches their attention, and conversing with them about it all have a positive impact on the development of their language skills.

Sometimes, parents become preoccupied with the wonderful developments taking place in their child during the early years of life. In the midst of this preoccupation, they might not notice certain skills in which the child is delayed. This often happens with their first child, as they may lack sufficient experience to compare their child's skills with those of children of the same age.

This does not mean that children are identical in the skills expected of them at each age stage; variations in skills and individual differences are natural. However, paying attention to areas where the child may need help or intervention early on has a significant impact on ensuring the child's healthy language development. In order for parents to notice these aspects, they must spend sufficient time with the child, observe their language skills objectively, and pay attention to warning signs, as denial and procrastination when language development problems actually exist can lead to unfavorable outcomes.

It is worth noting that early intervention is remarkably successful in overcoming many language disorders, and this is what we strive to offer through the Faseeh initiative, where the process begins when problems related to children's language development are detected—starting with parents observing the child, followed by consulting a licensed speech and language pathologist. The situation may require the child to undergo language development stimulation sessions, or it may require nothing more than the parents making a few changes in the way they speak with the child and in the nature of the activities and daily routine in which the child engages, whether alone or with parents, siblings, or friends.

And rest assured that what you do naturally, routinely, and smoothly on a daily basis as a father or mother makes all the difference; your role is the most important, and no one can replace you!

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Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.