Identify the various places that your child frequently visits, this includes church, nurseries, relatives' homes and parks. This helps you to evaluate the social influence on your child's language development process. Examine how your child behaves in these places; is she able to communicate and interact with the people or does she withdraw? Knowing the social interactions that your child is exposed to helps you detect negative or positive impacts on your child's development.
Observe your child's ability to develop new skills, such as following movement using his eyes, holding things and uttering new words. This helps you to gauge your child's cognitive processes; the ability to learn and develop new skills. Monitor how often you speak to your child, as this influences her mental ability to process language. Urge your family members to always talk with your child, as this opens up your child to new vocabularies. Keep a record of the new words that your child utilizes; this helps you to gauge your child's ability to learn new words and memorize them.
Note your child's opportunity for communication. Observe your child's communication patterns with older siblings; does your child receive the opportunity to express herself? Children with older siblings lack the opportunity to develop their speech independently, as their older siblings tend to speak for them. Ensure that your child speaks out, urge the older siblings to develop patience and allow the younger one to develop her language. Develop alone time with your child and encourage her to talk so you can measure her language development.
Screen the type of media that your child is exposed to. Identify the speech patterns these programs use. Do they use language that your child can easily repeat? Do they use correct English, or develop their own vocabularies? Limit the amount of time your child spends watching television, as this affects verbal communication development.
Assess your child's emotional and psychological state. Children who are insecure, frightened and intimidated have poor language development. Observe if your child acts frightened around people and if he is uncomfortable speaking. Guard what your child watches, such as horror movies or news items that may be frightening, as this will have a negative impact on your child's mental health, eventually affecting language development.