This is another strategy that will greatly help improve language skills in your children or students. It is very similar to Self Talk discussed in the previous post but this time you are giving a running commentary about what the child is doing. So, Self Talk, you are talking about yourself and Parallel Talk you are talking about your child or student. This time consider yourself the sports announcer describing each action the child is doing. For example if the child is playing with toy cars; while he is playing you might say, "Oh Jimmy is playing with his cars, you are pushing the car, push-push-push the red car!" "Oh it crashed into the truck, oops!" Again the idea is to spark a conversation about what your child or student is doing, no matter where they are or no matter what is happening. Parallel Talk and Self Talk go together very well, you may even find yourself using both of these strategies within the same conversation; that's great! The more strategies you can include in your day to day interactions with your child or students the better. So try talking about what everyone is doing using both Parallel Talk and Self Talk!
