Early Language and Communication

Babies and young children learn best through play and during daily activities. There are many ways you can encourage language and communication development in your child every day. We include some examples and activities below.

Communication 

Communication with your child may involve:

  • words
  • body language
  • gestures
  • sounds
  • facial expression
  • and eye contact.

Attention, listening, understanding, and motivation are essential skills that make a child a successful communicator.

See also the following pages on our website for more information on:

Language 

Language is a part of communication and includes both understanding and using words and sentences. 

Children learn the language that is useful to them. They like to talk about things that they see and enjoy.

You can support your child’s language development by: 

  • Keeping your language simple
  • Talking in short sentences
  • Talking about what your child is doing now; this helps your child to match the words you are saying to the different objects and actions.
  • Repeat words many times in different situations, making sure that your child can see the object, for example, ‘here is teddy; hello teddy; big hug for teddy’.

Joint attention

When communicating with your child, joint attention is important. Joint attention happens when two people pay attention to the same thing and show their interest in it to each other. They do this by looking at each other, gesturing (pointing to it), and/or saying something about the thing they are paying attention to. This may be an object, sound, event, or person.

For example, your child sees the postman outside and looks at you to see if you can see the postman also.  If you weren’t looking, your child might point at the postman or say something to get your attention.  You might answer back and ‘yes, the postman is here to deliver our letters’. To have joint attention, both people need to be aware that they are focused on the same thing which means they shift their gaze between the object and each other and communicate in some way that they are sharing the moment.

Joint attention is an important skill that helps children develop language skills. Joint attention generally develops as a child approaches the age of 2 or 3 but may develop differently for neurodiverse children. In this scenario, it’s very important to be led by your neurodiverse child’s interests to help them develop their joint attention skills.

Play

Play is important in encouraging the skills necessary for communication and language development. Play supports your child’s learning and self-expression. It can help them develop their listening and attention skills also.

Make time to play with your child everyday. When playing with your child you should observe your child’s focus of attention, follow their lead in play, get face-to-face with them in play, and make comments on what they are showing interest in. See our page here on the importance of play for your child's learning, self-expression, and communication.

See also our other pages on play on the website:

Reading with your child

Reading with your child can support your child’s comprehension and language skills. When reading with your child choose short, simple books with fun pictures. Reading the same books again and again helps your child to learn the story and hear the words.

Lift the flap books can be fun and help children to focus and feel involved.

Make sure that your child is in the mood before you start reading. Choose a time when they are feeling calm and ready to sit. They will not enjoy looking at a book if they want to run around.

 

Videos

The ‘Learning to Talk’ series is a playlist of 20 short videos for helping all adults to support children’s early communication development. The ‘Learning to Talk’ series is designed by HSE Speech and Language Therapists in Clare, Limerick, and North Tipperary, in partnership with ABC Startright, Limerick.

The first video is below - you can access the full playlist via the video link below or by clicking here. 

 
When the video you're watching starts playing, if you are on a desktop, click the "CC" icon at the bottom of the video. This will turn on the closed captions (subtitles). If you are on a mobile device, then at the top of the video, tap "CC" to enable closed captions. To disable the closed captions, tap the "CC" icon again.  Watch the video on its YouTube channel to see the transcript.

Further information

Below are some suggested resources for you to understand more about early language and communication:

 

Page last reviewed: 5 December 2025

Next review due: 5 December 2026