Communication Ideas

Communication Ideas

Receptive (Listening & Understanding)

Expressive (Talking & Sharing ideas)

Literacy

For specific ideas in each topic, check the drop down menu under communication.

Communication is the act of giving, receiving, and sharing information.

Communication is how we get our needs met, build relationships and learn.

Receptive communication is listening and understanding, but it includes recognizing when someone is trying to communicate with us and responding appropriately.

Expressive communication is talking, but it is also gestures, actions, facial expressions, body language and any other thing you can use to convey meaning to another person.

Literacy is the ability to use printed material to gain knowledge and share information.

How Infants and Toddlers Communicate

In the world of parenting an infant or toddler, the parent is first and most important communication partner a child has. Infants and toddlers are able and ready communicators. They communicate through gestures, sounds, facial expressions, movements, and language. As parents, it is up to you to learn and recognize the ways your child is communicating their wants and needs, gathering information and learning about the word around them, and initiating social interactions to build the relationship.

Receptive communication refers to an infant’s or toddler’s ability to listen to and understand language. They begin to understand language as part of their nurturing relationships with responsive, trusting adults and are able to make sense of gestures, facial expressions and words well before they are able to verbally express themselves.

Expressive communication is the ability of infants and toddlers to express themselves through sounds, gestures, facial expressions and words. A beginning point for expressive communication is the infant’s cry. Cooing is another form of early communication and can begin as early as one month. By six months, you can hear new sounds like “ma,” “ba,” and “da.” By 18 months, you may hear toddlers using two- and three-word sentences, such as “me go,” or “more drink, please.”

Social engagement involves the understanding and use of communication rules such as listening, taking turns and appropriate ways to use sounds and facial expressions. Conversations involve both understanding (receptive communication) and expressing (expressive communication). Infants and toddlers learn the ways to use sounds, gestures, facial expressions and words of their family’s language(s) when adults interact, talk, read and sing with them.

Supporting Communication, Language & Literacy