As their language skills develop, your child may start to better understand talk about things outside of the here and now, including things that have happened, might happen and more abstract ideas. Speech and language therapists call this 'decontextualising'.
It's a key skill for children to develop their communication to the next level, and a great way to start to build this understanding is to try to make time to talk to them about things that happened in the past.
Watch the film below for some ideas on how to strike up these sorts of chats.
As children get a little older, their memories develop to become more advanced and they'll start thinking and talking more about the things that have happened to them in the past.
You can help them to develop their understanding about the past and their ability to put these thoughts into words by speaking to them about things that have happened to them, you and people they know.
Talking about the past can help them to start building their vocabulary further and putting together more complicated sentences. It's a big milestone in their language learning.
Ways to get children thinking and talking about the past
- An easy way to try and start conversations using the past tense is to ask children questions about things they've done very recently, either that day or the day before. Ask questions like 'What did you see at the beach today">