Miya just started talking recently, she's quite a chatterbox just like me but in order for her to express herself properly we encourage her to talk, I'll make conversations with her everyday.

Here are some tips to help your child talk

1. Read to your child
Thank to Granny Lin, who showers her with book nearly every visit, she has fallen in love with reading, she'll choose a book and ask me to read it to her whenever she sees them and we do it every night before she goes to bed. She has learnt lots of words from the story books we read, she even understood feelings from reading. I started reading to Miya since she was a baby, it has become one of our favorite activities.

2. Keep your sentences simple
I have simplify my sentences so it's easier for Miya to understand them. It might seem silly at first but I got the hang of it and Miya understood me and slowly we started having conversations.

3. Talk to your child and engage a conversation 
The first thing we taught her was her name, we'll mention her name to get her attention. Make sure she replies as well. The first few attempts was funny, she kept saying her name was Ah Kok and it took us quite awhile to help her get to Kok Miya. Now she's telling everyone her name is Kok Miya. We also focus on what she's trying to say rather than how clearly she's able to pronounce it because we all know that can be changed in the future.

Keeping things simple made teaching and learning easy. We loved the process and thanks to our nanny, she speed things up because she's very patient with Miya. After learning her name we progress to body parts, from head to toe she's knows them inside out because of this it's also easier for her to tell us when she has tummy ache or if she's full already or she's having a runny nose.

As a first time mummy, I'm amazed that kids learn so quickly.

Here's my favorite conversation I have with her.

Me: Have you been a good girl today? 今天有乖乖嘛？
Miya: Yes 有

Me: What did nanny feed you today? 今天吃什么啊？
Miya: Porridge 粥粥

Me: What are you teeth for? 牙牙用来咬什么？
Miya: Meat 肉肉

Me: Do you love me? 有爱妈咪嘛？
Miya: Yes 有

Me: Do you love daddy? 有爱爸爸嘛？
Miya: Yes 有

Me：Miya is a girl ok? Miya是girl girl ok?
Miya: Boy boy!!!! (shouts loudly)

No matter how many times I try to correct her, she'll still insist that she's a boy, that's my cheeky little girl!