Just Keep on Talking!

Early language skills set your child up for a lifetime of success --

The first five years of life, especially the years between one and four are prime time for language learning.  The brain is growing and developing rapidly and forming new connections as it learns.  All normally developing children will learn to speak their native language, but how you engage with your child during these early years has far-reaching implications.  By recognizing the importance of a strong language foundation to academic achievement and by doing what you can to promote its optimal development, you will send your child to school more prepared to do well.  She will learn to read more easily, becoming a more proficient reader in the early grades.  Being able to read to learn will give her an advantage that lasts throughout her schooling and beyond.

What the research tells us:

First, quantity matters!  Children who grow up in chatty households with parents who spend a lot of time talking to them have faster growing vocabularies and more advanced language skills than children in quieter households with parents who speaker fewer words to them.¹  Parents who talk more inevitably expose their children to a greater variety of words and sentences.

Language development is also influenced by the quality of language to which a child is exposed.  Children who primarily hear directives and reprimands (however gently phrased), do not learn language as well as children who hear lots of open-ended questions, descriptions, and explanations.  Parents who asked, rather than told, their children what to do, and who consistently responded in positive rather than negative ways to their children’s speech and behavior, tend to raise more verbally gifted children than those who were poorer at these parenting skills.²  Not only do these children lag in vocabulary and comprehension, but are slower to develop inner speech, which puts them at a disadvantage for problem solving and critical thinking as they get older.  Their writing is likely to be less expressive and their questions less probing than children who are spoken to in a more elaborative way.  These differences in verbal skills persist well into the grade-school years.³

Emotional tone makes a difference - children can tell when adults are truly interested in what they are saying and when they are just giving perfunctory replies.  Children need to hear words that affirm their capabilities, and they need to receive responses to show that their ideas, opinions, and feelings are being taken seriously.  Their belief in themselves and their eagerness to learn new things is grounded in their early conversations with the people who are important in their lives.

From research to practice - Simple things you can do:

• Begin talking to your child from birth.  Newborns come into the world already attuned to human speech and immediately start learning the sounds of their mother tongue. 

• Speak to your child as much and as often as you can.  The more words he hears, the larger his vocabulary will be, and the faster it will continue to grow. 

• Speak directly to your child and in a conversational manner.  This cannot be overstated.  Quantity matters to the extent the words are addressed to your child.  You aren’t doing her any favors by talking on the phone all day, nor are television shows, educational videos, or apps adequate ways to increase her language exposure.  Even those that are marketed for language development are no substitute for turn-taking exchanges between the two of you.  Not only does your child need to hear you but she also needs her own chance to practice speaking.  If your child is still an infant, it’s important to do this through face-to-face contact, where she knows she is being addressed and that she is being heard.  It doesn’t hurt that babies are fascinated by human faces, especially yours.  Moreover, face-to-face contact gives her a chance to see, as well as hear, how words are pronounced.

• As in any conversation, listening is as important as speaking.  Parents often miss their baby’s first words because they are invariably mispronounced and hard to decipher from the rest of their babble.  Pay close attention very early on, when your baby first starts babbling.  Try to figure out which consonants and vowel sounds he can say and which he still omits.  Once you’re in the habit of good listening, you stand a much better chance of catching that first “ba” and being able to reply, “Yes, that’s your bottle.”

• Speak to your child in a simple, clear, and positive tone.  You are very likely already talking to her in “motherese” – the higher pitch, highly intonated style, and slower pace that babies clearly prefer.  Most of us seem to do this instinctively without really having to think about it.  “Motherese” is the most effective style of speaking to your baby or young child.  Don’t be talked into using a more “mature” style of speaking in the hopes of accelerating her development.  But don’t use muddled baby-talk either.  She needs to hear you speak simply and clearly: “Who’s the cutest baby in the world?” and not “Uz da cooest baby inna wowud?”  While it’s not always easy to judge your child’s level of understanding, keep in mind, that at whatever age, she probably understands far more than she can speak.  Aim to seek out a happy medium of speaking to her in a way that is largely within her reach of understanding but also stretches her just a bit beyond it. 

• One trick for keeping speech simple is to use lots and lots of repetition.  As you know, children love the predictability that comes from hearing the same story, song, or nursery rhyme over and over again.  By repeating the same words or phrases, you rapidly reinforce the neural connections for speech sounds and meanings.  But don’t treat it like a drill.  Nobody learns when they’re bored, and you’ll likely lose your enthusiasm as well. 

• Try, whenever possible to focus on the here and now: pointing out and labeling the objects, people, and events in your child’s immediate environment, especially his own actions, feelings and attempts at speech.  Respond to his utterances with questions (especially the who, what, and why kind, as opposed to simple yes-no queries).  Affirmations (good job, mommy’s clever boy…), repetitions, or elaborations, will also encourage him to keep talking, practicing those brand-new words or phrases or sentences.  With young babies, focus on repeating or imitating their attempts at words and syllables.

• Don’t correct your child’s speech.  Particularly early on, when she’s eagerly trying to spit out her first word, you’ll actually be inhibiting her if you spend too much effort correcting or questioning her faulty pronunciation.  Your corrections won’t be any more useful later when she starts making the inevitable grammatical errors, like “candy is the bestest food” for example.  Don’t worry about the mistakes.  She’ll be far better off if you focus on what she’s saying rather than how she’s saying it.  You don’t want to risk sending the message that “you’re really not very good at talking, so why bother.” Just remember, little children are expert at rooting out their own errors and matching their language to the model of those around them.  The best route to good grammar is simply to set a good example in your own speech.

•  Last but definitely not least – READ TO YOUR CHILD EVERY DAY!

There’s nothing like cuddling up together with a story to create the perfect, cozy opportunity for language-learning.  Parents do their best teaching while reading to their young children, and it really pays off.  By reading to your child early and often, you are advancing his language skills and growing his vocabulary – an advantage that will last well into the grade-school years.  Books offer a great way to stimulate his own speaking by using them as a stepping-off point for more conversations.  With a new book delivered right to your door each month, BEGIN WITH BOOKS ensures you always have an age-appropriate, stimulating, and enjoyable book at the ready!

In our next blog, we’ll dig deeper into the reasons why books are the most effective tool for teaching language.  We’ll also provide you with book suggestions and activities you can do with your child to support his or her language development.  Be sure to check back soon, or FOLLOW BY EMAIL so you'll never miss a post!

 -- -- Caron Bell, PhD, Early Childhood Development, and beginwithbooks.org volunteer

Notes:

¹ Hart, B & Risley, T.R.  (1992) American parenting of language-learning children: persisting differences in family-child interactions observed in natural environments, Developmental Psychology, 28, 1096-105.

² Hart, B.  & Risley, T.R.  (1995).  Within-class predictors of language achievement.  Meaningful Differences in Everyday Experience of Young American Children.  Baltimore: Paul H.  Brooks, p.168

³ Follow-up study: D.  Walker et al., (1994) Prediction of school outcomes based on early language production and socioeconomic factors, Child Development, 65, 606