For many working mothers, their busy schedules only allow them to interact with their children in the evenings and on weekends, leaving little time to help with language and communication skills development.
To maximise your child's language learning and understanding, get him into a good crèche. The teacher to child ratio should be fairly low, like 1:4 or 1:6. This will ensure that your child receives enough attention and is able to learn from and imitate their teacher.
The other children in the class are important too. Your child should not be the oldest in class, or too advanced with speech skills. He will simply not be able to learn anything from the other children if they cannot keep up with his conversations. If there are children their own age and older to talk to, then they will benefit more from time spent at crèche.
When you do spend time with your child, be sure to actively listen to what they have to say. Give them your full attention and make comments. Your child will know if your thoughts are occupied with other things like the newspaper or television while he is talking. This will discourage them from talking further.
If you are doing a task or watching television with your child, keep making conversation about what is happening. When you read to your child, make it as interactive as possible and introduce new words and ideas based on pictures in books and see if he remembers these things later on. Use part of the word or phrase to prompt him if he forgets the name for something new he has learned.