Language Development in Early Childhood
Communication skills are critical for your children's future success. When your children start school, they will need well-developed communication skills - to make friends, learn new things, and to start learning how to read and write. (Ontario Ministry).
Researchers have found that language development begins before a child is even born, as a fetus is able to identify the speech and sound patterns of the mother's voice. By the age of four months, infants are able to discriminate sounds and even read lips (Cherry, 2013).
Parents play an important part their children's ongoing language and communication development. Talking, listening and playing with your children will help them to build the skills they needs to succeed in school and in life (Ontario Ministry). When parents read to their children or when teachers read to their students, they show supportive and responsive relationships. Children are able to learn to read and begin to understand meanings. They are also able to use their prior knowledge to help them understand the story or play. When adults read to children, the children develop common shared meanings in print. Through shared reading, children begin to understand concepts of print, vocabulary knowledge, story structure, and general knowledge (Pelletier, 2001)
Dear parents and guardians, there are ways to support early language development in children. I encourage you to use these strategies at home with your child to help foster their language development.
Communication skills are critical for your children's future success. When your children start school, they will need well-developed communication skills - to make friends, learn new things, and to start learning how to read and write. (Ontario Ministry).
Researchers have found that language development begins before a child is even born, as a fetus is able to identify the speech and sound patterns of the mother's voice. By the age of four months, infants are able to discriminate sounds and even read lips (Cherry, 2013).
Parents play an important part their children's ongoing language and communication development. Talking, listening and playing with your children will help them to build the skills they needs to succeed in school and in life (Ontario Ministry). When parents read to their children or when teachers read to their students, they show supportive and responsive relationships. Children are able to learn to read and begin to understand meanings. They are also able to use their prior knowledge to help them understand the story or play. When adults read to children, the children develop common shared meanings in print. Through shared reading, children begin to understand concepts of print, vocabulary knowledge, story structure, and general knowledge (Pelletier, 2001)
Dear parents and guardians, there are ways to support early language development in children. I encourage you to use these strategies at home with your child to help foster their language development.
- Practise Developing Oral Language Skills
- - Build on conversations that your child initiates. Respond
by asking open ended questions using the why? and how?
Example:
Child "Mom/Dad, school was fun today!"
Parent "Why/how was school fun today? What did you learn/do .? - - Focus on using descriptive language when having conversations with your child. Talk about how things look, taste, feel, smell, or work and how they make them feel?
Explore the Sounds of Speech
- Have children focus on the words, syllables, rhymes, and phonics.
- Clap your hands to count out the syllables in familiar words and names that they will recognize
- Sing songs and read poems that rhyme so children become familiar with the sound of rhyming words
- Play word games such as 'Scrabble" that emphasize the structure of language. (Pelletier,2011).
Encourage the Recognition of the Alphabet Letters and their Sounds
-Use your child's name to help sound out the sounds of letters.
- As parents and educators we want to help our children learn but we must also encourage our children to be independent thinkers. When children try to spell a word, avoid giving them the answer without helping them to sound out what they are writing.
- Encourage children to keep a journal and practice their creative writing skills. Have children write in their journal the fun and exciting things they did on the weekend (Pelletier,2011).
Create Opportunities for Active Engagement with the Print on the Paper.
- Introduce children to the features of written text (e.g., ask children where to begin and end when reading and which words to pay attention to on the page).
- Point to and refer to the title and the names of the author and the
illustrator (Pelletier,2011).
Watch this video to find out more positive strategies that you can use in the home to foster your child's language development!
References
Pelletier, J. (2001). Supporting early language and literacy. Research Monograph #37. Ontario: Ministry of Education. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_Early_Language.pdf
http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/ss/early-childhood-development_4.htm
http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/earlychildhood/speechlanguage/brochure_preschool.aspx
Pelletier, J. (2001). Supporting early language and literacy. Research Monograph #37. Ontario: Ministry of Education. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_Early_Language.pdf
http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/ss/early-childhood-development_4.htm
http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/earlychildhood/speechlanguage/brochure_preschool.aspx