Syntatic DEVELOPMENT: Strategies for parents

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Because books often include more formal and sophisticated sentences than everyday conversation , exposure to storybook language can have an important influence on children’s syntactic development . And, of course, discussing the books that you read with your children can provide limitless opportunities for expanding upon their own speech, helping them to understand the meaning of prepositional phrases and pronouns, and differentiating between what already happened in a story and what is going to happen...As you read with your child, you have the opportunity to highlight and label different parts of speech by turning grammar into a fun game.


What to do

Label parts of speech during shared book reading

how to do it

Highlight and label different parts of speech by turning grammar into a fun game.

For example, you might read the sentence 

"The boy was running" 

and ask your child, 

"Who is this sentence about?" 

If your child can identify who the sentence is about, give your child specific positive feedback, 

"Great! 'The boy is the subject of the sentence. He's the one who is running." 

As your child begins to understand the game, you can change the question to 

"who is the subject of the sentence?" 

Once your child understands the idea that each sentence has a subject, you can move on to verbs, objects, and adjectives in the sentence. You may be surprised by how quickly your child starts to shout her answers triumphantly. 

what to do

Create your own mad libs

how to do it

Help your child understand parts of speech by creating your own Mad Libs modeled after the popular fill-in-the-blank game. Use any book you read together to create many similar sentences in order to help your child to understand nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

what to do

Build-a-Sentence Using Objects

how to do it

Build sentences with your child by using your own tangible materials (such as stuffed animals or lego people). 

For example, you could line up a baby doll, a spoon, and a bowl of cereal and "read" the sentence

 "The baby eats cereal." 

This is a fun, interactive way to build skills together.

what to do

Make sentences using objects and flashcards

how to do it

Using tangible objects and flashcards, help your child build full sentences. 

Choose a few nouns 
(For example, a stuffed animal, a baby doll, flashcards with names of family members, and then some toys, snacks, or other objects),

a few verbs 
(for example, the written words loves, runs, and eats), 

and a few adjectives 
(for example, shiny, delicious). 

Swap words to make new sentences that highlight different parts of speech: 

"The baby eats cookies"

"The baby loves cookies" 

"The baby loves delicious cookies" 

"The baby loves shiny toys."

what to do

Make sentences more complex using and,but, or changes in tense

how to do it

Using the same objects from the previous tip, connect two short sentences using the words (and) or (but). 


The two sentences 


"The baby eats cookies" 


and 


"the baby eats apples"


can become 


"The baby eats cookies and apples." 


You can also play with tense. 


For example, ask, 


"Yesterday, what did the baby eat?" 


Then help your child construct the sentences 


"she ate cookies and apples."