This post will deal with the important task of building oral language skills in children. It has been proven that children from homes with parents that have a college education do better in school than children from parents without a college education. Why is that? The children from educated parents hear on average 1000 more words per day than children from parents without a college education. This translates into a higher working oral vocabulary for these children, and it makes a huge difference in school readiness.
The Importance of Oral Language Skills
Oral language skills really do make or break a child's ability to decode words either using the phonics method of reading instruction or the whole language method of reading instruction. In fact, it is extremely important for children who will be taught to read using the whole language method. Children taught using the phonics method still benefit from a rich oral language base.
What makes oral language so important? When children have a rich oral vocabulary, they have basically prewired their brains for language acquisition. This benefits reading, writing, and foreign language acquisition later in life. Children are born with millions of neurons and all through early childhood the brain either makes connections or prunes connections. When children are exposed to rich language experiences, the brain makes more permanent connections in the section of the brain designated for language. When children are not exposed to rich language experiences, the brain makes fewer connections and prunes more in the section of the brain designated for language. This really has significant impact when a child reaches school-age. Those early connections make reading much easier for those that have them. For those that do not have them, reading and all language based skills become much more of a challenge. Lack of money is not the main detrimental aspect of poverty on children. It is this language deficiency that seems to accompany poverty that truly puts these children at a disadvantage.
The Decline of Oral Language Skills
In the not so distant past, it seemed that only children from at risk environments seemed to experience this language deficiency. However, recent trends from those of us on the front lines of childcare have seen the language immaturity of children skyrocket despite parents' socio-economic status. The trend of educational level of parents still seems to be holding somewhat true, but even children from educated parents are showing less oral language skills than children from educated parents just five years ago. What has changed? The level of technology use is what has changed. Now, instead of having conversations with their children, parents often hand them a phone or other device to keep them occupied. As childcare providers we see it everyday. Parents come in to pick up their children talking on their cell phones. These parents continue their conversations while they sign out their children, grab the child and his/her stuff, and walk out the door still having the same conversation on their phone. The scenario is exactly the same in reverse at drop-off time except the parents will take a small break to kiss and hug their child goodbye before they go out the door still talking on their phone. How many times have you seen a child in a public place being pacified with an electronic device while the parent shops or does other things? Psychologists are beginning to raise the alarm about the lack of real social skills among today's young adults because of social media and electronic communication devices. This trend is also greatly affecting children's oral language skills.
What Can We Do?
Unfortunately, as childcare providers there is only so much we can do to counter these trends. We can work hard to provide rich language experiences for children while in our care, but we do not have them all the time. The lack of language experiences during the rest of their time has an affect on these children. Even though it is not fair, it falls to us to try to educate parents as to the importance of providing rich language experiences for their children all the time. Following are some suggestions for parents to help them do a better job of hardwiring their little ones for a lifetime of language learning.
READ!!!!!!
The first and probably one of the most important activities a parent can do for a child is to read to them. However, getting parents to read to children can be one of the most difficult endeavors anyone undertakes. Some school systems have gone to extreme measures to make sure parents of early elementary children read to their children. My granddaughter's kindergarten teacher has my daughter document how many books she reads to my granddaughter every week. It is part of my granddaughter's grade. I use a more subtle approach at my childcare by providing "traveling suitcases" for the children to take home over the weekend. I cannot tell you how many parents have come in Monday morning complaining about how many times they had to read that book over the weekend, and I simply smile to myself thinking how that parent grew up over the weekend despite himself/herself. However, I have also had parents refuse to take the suitcases home because they did not want to fool with them. As I said, there is only so much you can do as a childcare provider, but never quit trying.
Sit-Down Meals
The second suggestion for parents involves encouraging them to have sit-down meals that are electronic-free. Again, in our society getting parents to do this one is just as difficult as trying to get them to read. Some people simply cannot go for any amount of time away from their smart phones. It is sad. However, the electronic-free aspect of this suggestion presents only half the problem. It absolutely amazes me how many people do not cook meals anymore. They eat in the vehicle on their way to wherever or they pick up fast food and everyone disperses with their food to various rooms of the house and usually engages with some form of electronic device from televisions to video games. Having sit-down meals in our society has nearly become extinct, and it is affecting the oral language skills of our children. Sit-down mealtimes provide invaluable conversation between adults and children. Even when the conversation involves only the adults for a time, it is important for children to listen to this type of conversation. When children are privy to adult conversation, they have better oral vocabularies.
Do Not Dumb Down for Children
The last of my suggestions deals with how adults talk to children. When my biological children were small, I never dumbed down my vocabulary for them. I talked to them as if they were a person. Some people do not realize how much they dumb down their vocabulary for children, and it does the children more harm than good. Children need to hear a wide variety of language even when they are small. The more exposure they have to these bigger words, the more likely it is that these words will become a part of their oral vocabulary. I still talk to the children in my care the same way I talked to my biological children. I use some big words. If I get a funny look from them, I simply explain the word and go on. People have commented over the years about how impressive the oral vocabularies of the children in my care are in comparison to the other children around them. There is a reason for that.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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