Adults play an important role in expanding a child’s words into phrases and later into sentences.
Try to:
- follow your child’s interest and talk about what they are doing or playing
- use simple language
- comment on what they are doing instead of asking questions
- repeat what you say.
Copy and add a word
Repeat what your child says and then add another word. For example, if your child says “car”, say “car” and add 2 or 3 words, such as “It is a car… a fast car”. If your child says a short phrase like “daddy big car”, you could repeat and expand it: “daddy big car… yes, daddy drives a big car”. Continue building on your child’s language as they progress.
Children often begin by using object words or names in their early sentences, for example “mummy car”, “me juice” or “cat bed”.
We can help to expand what they say by adding other types of words such as:
Action/doing words
- Verbs are useful words to help develop sentences so try to use them when you child talks for example, “car” you could say “car driving” or “car stopping” etc.
- When your child is doing something and he says “brick or up”, you could say “building up” or “building bricks.”
Describing words
- How things look – their size, their shape, their colour.
- How things sound – noisy, quiet, crunchy.
- How does it feel – soft, slimy, cold, hot.
Explore new words
Children learn new words very frequently. Explain new words and ideas to help to expand your child’s word knowledge. When using a new word, talk about it along with related features. For example:
New word – elephant
Feature – big, grey, trunk, ears
Lives – jungle
Category – animal
Related words – monkey, tiger
Making sentences
Children sometimes use only the words that give meaning and miss out the small grammatical words. When this happens just repeat back the sentence using all the correct words . For example:
Child says “Go Nanny’s car now”
Your comment “We are going to Nanny’s in the car”
Rhymes, poems and songs
Nursery rhymes, action songs and little poems are fun for pre-school children. They help them to listen well because they are simple, repetitive and encouraging. Pause between words or sentences to see if your child will join in.
Share stories. Encourage children to share books, even if for only a short time each day. Books which pop up, have flaps and bright pictures work well. Talk about what you can see in the pictures. Begin to talk about what will happen next and link the story to the child’s own experience.
Last reviewed October 2025