Scrabble boosts children's language, speech skills

Wondering how to encourage your child to communicate? Try sitting down to a game of Scrabble or Cluedo.

According to government communications adviser Jean Gross, board games boost children's language and speech skills.

They also encourage taking turns and listening within the family, added Gross, who was appointed the first communication "champion" by the last government.

"Cluedo is really good because it involves speculating," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

"What we often want with language is to get children not just talking about the here and now, but about what might be.

"Scrabble is also fantastic because of links with the written words. It develops vocabulary," she said.

"If you look at something like Snakes and Ladders, it's particularly rich in language. It's got "up", "down", "along" and a whole lot of positional words that help children," she added.

Research from Dundee University found that activities such as singing nursery rhymes and looking at photograph albums help promote language, she said.