Your role as communication partner:

• Offer choices – offering a choice between two items provides the opportunity for the child to talk and models vocabulary

• Extend – if a child says one word you can extend it by adding another, for example the child says ‘milk’, you say ‘more milk'

• Use the child’s name – children can become so focussed on their play that gaining their attention by saying their name before you talk to them will help them to listen to you