Pay close attention to everything your toddler says — even when her babbles are hard to understand. To help her out, ask her to show you what she wants or point to what she is talking about. Ask open-ended questions and wait for a response. When you act genuinely interested in your toddler’s answers, you can keep the conversational ball rolling longer. (Open-ended questions also promote children’s recall from memory, sharpen observation skills, and encourage planning and if-then syllogistic reasoning skills.)
Yes, I am still excitedly reading articles like this, because I’m a masochist!
Seriously, this kind of thing has always been interesting to me. I do have a degree in linguistics, after all. Maybe someday I’ll “get over the narcissistic injury” and stop adding snide comments every time I make a post relating to children.