Around the same time babies start walking, they also start talking. Is it just a coincidence? Nope! Find out how walking affects children’s communication development, and get some tips for interacting with your child during this important time in their life.

The next time you have a conversation with your child, think of it like a game – of tennis! Follow these pro tips to make the game successful and fun, and to give your child lots of opportunities to build communication skills.

There’s no better time for your child to learn about communicating than when they’re playing. Use these tips to join in the play in the best ways to help your child learn.

When you encourage your child to play with a variety of things in a variety of ways, you create new experiences that give your child new opportunities to hear language and learn new things. Here are some more ideas for encouraging language and learning while having fun together!

Parents often wonder about the best toys to help their child learn to communicate and play. Toys from the store are great, but they’re not necessary! Discover how you can use these five everyday household items to have fun with your child while building their language skills. 

Welcome to our special page all about Following Your Child’s Lead – a key strategy in the Hanen early communication program, It Takes Two to Talk®. Here you’ll learn all about the importance of following your child’s lead to build their language skills, and you’ll find lots of tips and links to get you started.

To learn language, young children need to do much more than just hear their parents use words -- they need to engage in back-and-forth conversations, even if they're not yet using words or sentences. What does an "early conversation" look like, and how can you make sure you're having them with your child as often as possible?

Most children start combining words into sentences somewhere around 30 months old, though this may happen a bit later for children with language delays. Whether your child is typically developing or has a delay, there are specific ways you can talk to your child to encourage this big step in language development.