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Reprinted with permission
LDA of America
(www.ldaamerica.org)
Published in the May 1999 issue of Newsbriefs
For most children,
all the skills needed for oral language are acquired naturally
by the time they are five years old.
A kindergartner, for example, uses sophisticated vocabulary
and grammar and has nearly accurate pronunciation, which
are used effectively to manipulate his or her social environment.
In order to acquire this much language skill, however, young
children must first and consistently hear the language.
Infants
and young children begin to make connections between words,
or signifiers, and the things they indicate, when
parents and caregivers name objects and actions for them.
This is a simple activity, performed almost naturally, that
does not require children to speak, but which gives them,
nevertheless, words they will later use themselves. Moreover,
listening to language is the groundwork for later reading
skills. This is evident, for example, in the early stages
of emergent literacy, when children do not comprehend stories
sequentially. Instead, they perceive that each picture in
a book has its own oral tale. As they appear to mimic reading,
children are really retelling the events they have heard
read to them previously and still see in the pictures. However,
as children learn to identify letters and words, they gradually
come to learn that words tell the story that pictures merely
illustrate, and that the story itself does not change.
Early
language interaction (infants listen, even though they cannot
speak), and early language skills acquisition, are
critical to the brain's development. The brain is fully ready
to think through tactile learning as early as nine months,
and the neural networks for abstract thinking, such as math
and logic, are set to begin to function. Language interaction
and early exposure to sounds, music, and rhythms remain critical
to later learning.
Parents can do much to nurture early oral
language development in their children through creative and
focused quality time
spent with them. The following simple activities are valuable
and can be done, even when quantity of time with children
is hard to come
by:
1. Talk to your child.
Finding time to do this is not necessary if you remember
to talk to your child whenever you are together. In addition,
language, reading and math can be taught informally as part
of conversation:
- Talk about the day's events, a book the child
has read, or the traffic signs you both see along the
way whenever you
are in a car together;
- Ask your child to point out specific
foods or household items. Describe the characteristics
of a fruit (red, crunchy)
and let the child identify it (apple).
2. Read to your child
while he or she sits in your lap.
Take turns reading (or reciting) pages aloud. This fosters
in the child a positive association with reading. For children
with a limited attention span provide illustrated books
with big, colorful, eyecatching pictures and minimal words.
3. Reading books
should be an interactive experience. Try:
- Discussing the book's pictures and paraphrasing
its story;
- Letting your child make up his or her own version
of what will happen next in a story;
- If a story is familiar,
allowing your child to finish telling key events or giving
the succeeding rhyme;
- Giving your child the opportunity
to correct you by purposely misreading or omitting items
and events; or
- Acting out the story or creating a puppet
show; and
- Reinforcing sequential reading by starting at
the beginning of the book and demonstrating the direction
of
written text, from left to right and top to bottom of the page.
4. Cultivate phonological
awareness with auditory and
visual word
games, such as:
- Rhyming games. If a child does not hear the
rhyme, try a game with words that begin with the same sound;
- The broken record game. Say a word very slowly and break
it into syllables, then have the child repeat the
word at a normal speed;
- Pick a game your child enjoys, such as matching letters,
and tracing or copying the names of familiar people;
or
- Have your child draw pictures and make up a story, while
you act as scribe.
5. Children learn one-to-one correspondences,
then patterns and sequence.
Children learn to count, for example, and to recite
the alphabet before they connect numbers and letters
with
math and reading.
Help them master concepts by interacting with everyday
objects around the home. Try:
- Having your child point to one cup or two plates,
and then having him or her bring them to the table. Ask
your child
to place one napkin next to one plate;
- Playing
a game in which the child matches letters to items in the
home that begin with that letter
(for
example, [v] and "vacuum"); or
- Engaging in activities that involve
patterns and sequence.
6. Link young
children with positive early reading experiences using audiotapes, videos,
reading buddies, lap reading, and with a print rich home
environment.
A love of books helps to make the ongoing effort
of learning to read fun and worthwhile, even
for children
who struggle
to master its skills.
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