To do this requires skill and patience. It means watching very closely and knowing when a child is becoming too frustrated or too bored. And it means constantly providing new opportunities and just the right kind of new challenges and interests for the child to continue his or her own learning process. Learning to speak and understand language is one of the most important and complicated tasks facing young children. They learn best if parents are constantly helping, right from birth, by talking, singing songs and nursery rhymes, pointing at things or people and giving them names, asking questions, and reading or telling stories as soon as the child is able to understand.
Children are able to understand language long before they can speak.
It is possible to have 'conversations' with a child from the very earliest age. It does not matter how simple or babyish the conversation is. What matters is 'bathing the child in words'. The child needs to respond to words and sounds and to see others respond to his or her own attempts at sounds and words. When a child begins to make sounds, words, and sentences, parents should show their delight and encourage the child to build on the things that have been learnt.