Don't always make the child gaze up to make eye contact. Show young children how to use words. Put words to your actions, feelings and thoughts. Children don't learn language from flashcards or audio or videotapes. Our actions do communicate more than our words.
Spoken language is new to young children.
They must learn language in context of familiar and known forms of communication. Words never replace nonverbal communication. All too often we confuse children by presenting inconsistency between the words and the actions. Back to top Bruce Duncan Perry, M.D., Ph.D. is the Thomas S. Trammell Research Professor of Child Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Within the Baylor College of Medicine clinical system, he serves as Chief of Psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital.