The following is a repost from July of last year. Also, don’t forget to enter the Literacy Beginnings giveaway. Entries end Tuesday at 11:59pm MST.
Talk with them, not at them.Include children in the conversation by asking them open-ended questions. Ask them to tell you about the best part of their day. Have them tell you all about the structure they’re building out of legos. Ask them about what they think will happen next in the story you’re reading. Study after study bears out the fact that children learn more when they are engaged in conversation with adults and competent peers as opposed to passively hearing information.
Yes! Parentese is vital to early language acquisition, but once your child is using language, then it’s OK to up the language-level. They will never know the names for things if you don’t teach them. And knowing the words for things leads to learning the words for feelings, which enables your child to express their emotions, which ultimately benefits their behaviour and mental health. So big words (eventually, with time & effort) = happy kids!
Great explanation. I always try to encourage parents to talk to their kids all day long. My daughter has had amazing oral language since she was able to talk. Now she is 4 and she says words I don’t ever remember saying.
I totally agree. Books are very important in our house. I’ve read to my children daily since the very beginning. We are also at the library on a weekly basis.
Glad you reposted this – thanks! Love the ‘quality conversations’ and ‘talk with them, not at them’ – excellent!
Reading not only promotes a large vocabulary but it also promotes creativity. To take things one step further I recommend one or two personalized books for your children. It takes the excitement of reading one step further. We really like http://www.starboundstorybooks.com/ by John Abernathy. The artwork is terrific and the story lines are wonderful. You’ll enjoy them or they make great gifts.
Speaking as a former Deputy Head teacher I really enjoyed your article. Empowering children with a wide vocabulary aids their confidence, their linguistic sophistication and their ability to express their emotions healthily. It also empowers them with the tools they need to communicate articulately without frustration. I always encourage the parents I work with to ask open ended questions and to use books to develop their love of learning.
Great post! I’m also a fan of reading books to children that are just a little beyond them. I think a lot of modern children’s books underestimate their audience!
I’ve never used ‘parentese’ (we used to call it baby-talk) to my kids, and they both have a crazy-huge vocabulary (my 3 year old is going through a phase where he tells me all the time: “mama, I’m feeling frustrated”). I’ve always thought that the only reason kids can’t use big words is because they don’t hear them or understand them when they do, so I’ve encouraged my kids to ask me about any words they don’t understand.
I love that my three year old knows and uses big words. I love that he asks what new words mean, because he wants to use them later.
Great article! I completely agree that we should be encouraging our children to foster a better vocabulary from a young age. We’ve always encouraged our soon to learn new words, especially through reading. We recently finished RA Jones’ “The Obsidian Pebble” (http://www.rajonesauthor.com/), which taught him “obsidian” and “poltergeist”!