An essential characteristic of creating a high-quality child care experience is to provide a responsive and stimulating environment that helps children develop language skills. This workshop will provide an overview of how and why young children communicate, stages of language development from birth to age five, and various communication disorders that may affect your children and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. You will learn practical, interactive strategies to help facilitate language development during play and everyday routines for all children in your care, including children who are typically developing, children who are at-risk or struggling with a communication disorder, and English language learners.