I. Introduction
In the fall of each school year, most kindergarten teachers assess their incoming students to determine these students' educational needs. It is a very anxious moment for the parents and these 5-year old children visiting a school for the first time. Most of the assessments involve a measure of language skills, pre-reading skills, motor skills, and a glimpse into each child's behavior. In a nutshell, these assessments provide a quick panoramic view of the learning activities these children have experienced in the early stages of their life. These assessments also provide predictions: some children will need lots of extra help in school to do well, and others are primed to be successful in school from the start. I contend that parents and pre-school teachers who work with young developing children give them a big head start in life if they pay attention to three necessary learning activities that prepare them to succeed in school: language, exploration, and reading. Let us first explore language development as a critical learning activity.
II. The Importance of Language Development
“It’s not the toys in the house that make the difference in children's lives; it’s the words in their heads.” (Jim Trelease)
An energetic first-grade teacher brings an apple and an orange to school to be used as examples of fruits for a health lesson. When she asks the students what these objects have in common, ten students raise their hands to answer “fruits,” and ten students have no idea because the words “fruit” and “common” are foreign to them. The teacher continues her
lesson even though ten students are still grappling with new vocabulary words and struggling to process the teacher's healthy eating ideas. In one instance, the disadvantages of delayed language development can be so apparent to the teacher and, unfortunately, to the language delayed students trying their best to keep up with the teacher.
Chances are that the ten students who were comfortable with the words “fruit” and “common” at the age of six have had rich language experiences in their home. According to most educational researchers, these children will probably have more success in school because language is a reference point for all reading and a prerequisite skill for conceptual understanding.
The other ten children who had not been exposed to the words “fruit” and “common” may have been deprived of language experiences, or they may be learning a second language. Unfortunately, poverty is often a predictor of arrested language development in children. Jessica Lahey, a writer for The Atlantic magazine, provided this research-based commentary in October of 2014:
“By the time these children are five-years-old, the poor ones will have heard thirty million fewer words than their wealthy peers.”
Ms. Lahey continued in her article to highlight the disadvantages that language impoverished children have when they begin kindergarten. Not only do these students miss-out on basic instruction because of vocabulary deficits, but they also struggle with the abstract reasoning it takes to understand why an apple and an orange are similar. The most obvious solution to this dilemma is to educate and encourage all parents to speak, listen, and read with their children. Secondly, programs like Head Start, designed to help low-income and second language children catch up in the language arts, are a must in all walks of society. Wouldn’t it be great if we could “put ten million additional words in these kids’ heads” before they start kindergarten!
III. Five Easy Parenting Strategies to Increase Child Language Development
There are many actions parents can take to enhance the language development of their children. I have chosen to discuss five strategies that are easy to do, take no training, and are very useful in advancing the language skills of children:
1. “The airplane goes up and up, circles around, and lands in this baby’s mouth.” These were the words I often heard my wife say to our 1-year old at our dinner table as she helped him spoon his food. Honestly, sometimes I thought my wife had “lost it” because she talked to both of our sons all day. Now, I realize how blind I was and how smart she was. Many papers are written about child language development in the home, and they usually “boil down” to talk and listen to your kids all the time if you want their language skills to expand. As children get older, this may mean turning off the TV and spending time talking to your children about their day, their schoolwork, or maybe even about their dreams and ambitions.
2. “Let’s go to the mall and see if we can find a baseball cap specialty shop! Do you know what a specialty shop is?” A parent's enthusiastic message to her 7-year old child highlights an essential language-based strategy parents can use to help their children enrich their vocabulary. Taking the time to investigate and emphasize new vocabulary regularly with their children can be an easy way for parents to expand the vocabulary knowledge necessary for school success.
3. Another language development strategy that parents may wish to utilize with their children is increasing the number of open-ended questions they ask in a day. Basically, open-ended questions are questions that require the child to respond with sentences instead of a word. For example, the “specialty shop parent” may end the discussion by asking her child, “Can you name some specialty shops, and what makes a store a specialty shop?” One can immediately see that this type of discussion can increase the child’s expressive language and abstract thinking skills.
4. Some parents may be concerned that their spoken vocabulary is limited. Not to worry, reading to children is a fun and informative way to expand your child’s vocabulary, knowledge, and imagination. Additionally, let us never downplay the affection and memories created when parents read with their children.
5. The reading experience can become an enhanced language activity if the parent interrupts a reading activity by asking open-ended questions. For example, when reading the story of Cinderella, a parent could ask her child, “Have you ever felt left-out like Cinderella? Tell me what happened.” Using open-ended questions, the parent has encouraged the child to use language as a tool for complex thinking and expression. Other reading specialists recommend that parents interrupt reading passages at crucial moments to ask the child to make predictions about the story. Not only do these exercises support enriched language activities, but they also assist children to think as they read.
IV. Summary
Children who have well-developed language skills tend to do better in school. This is an established fact that runs across all educational research. Language is the reference point for all reading, and it is a prerequisite skill for conceptual understanding. In this brief article, I have emphasized the importance of early language enrichment experiences and provided some basic language development strategies for parents to use at home.
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