This weekend we went to the store and I got the most awesomest costume for Halloween. I’m going to be Wolverine for Halloween this year! I have a costume that has real wolverine claws and a mask and my dad was in the United States Wolverine Corps. Wolverine is my favorite super hero. I really like super heroes! I have a Wolverine book and a Batman book. Do you know I have a red cape with a lightning bolt on it?
If you give this little guy an inch he’ll go on and on and on. When he’s not rhapsodizing about super heroes, he’ll tell you more than you’ll ever want to know about sharks – all different kinds of sharks! I enjoy every minute of his chatter. He’s using age-appropriate grammar and a rich vocabulary. OK, so some of his details are a little off. Like how his dad was in the United States MARINE Corps, but you’ve got to love his enthusiasm and his pride in his dad.
In my opinion, one of the biggest predictors of success in Kindergarten is a child’s oral language skills. So while those chatty kids might drive parents crazy, those are the students who are easiest to teach. Sure, it takes time for students to learn when it is OK to talk in school and when it is not OK, but eventually they figure it out. And just so I don’t have a complete rebellion on my hands I allow opportunities for sharing about our days, responding to a story, or quietly chatting with neighbors.
It’s the quiet kids that always concern me. The ones who never raise their hands. The ones who never have anything to say even when called upon to share.
Sure, some children are painfully shy. And I completely feel their pain because I was super shy as a kid. Eventually, my shy students will come out of their shells long enough to answer a question or share a story – even if it means whispering to me or a friend to share for them.
But my concern for quiet kids does not include those who are shy, it is for those who never have anything to say. The chronic shoulder-shrugger “I don’t know” responders. The child who pulls an item out of a basket and can’t think of the word fish – and is a native English speaker. The child who says tiger for a picture of a tabby cat or house for a picture of a window. The child who has nothing to share about her weekend even after all the other children have shared about riding bikes, playing wii, or going to grandma’s house. These are the children who worry me the most.
Puritans thought that children should be seen and not heard. Fortunately this belief is no longer widespread for studies have shown that children who have more extensive vocabularies will perform better in school. Children with rich and extensive vocabularies have the words to express themselves and better overall comprehension. Dr. Louisa Moats found that linguistically poor children enter first grade with 5,000 words in their vocabulary while linguistically rich students enter first grade with 20,000 words. That’s a huge gap to fill.
In the book Building Oral Language Skills in PreK-K, the author Cindy Middendorf cites research that shows, “Not all children who struggle with early reading skills have poor oral language, yet nearly all children who have poor oral language will struggle with early reading skills.” This was repeated for me again at a literacy conference when the speaker mentioned that 70% of struggling third grade readers have poor oral language. I structure my Kindergarten schedule to do all I can to encourage oral language and vocabulary development.
But parents have their children for five years before they enter my classroom. So how does one raise their child to be a wolverine loving shark fanatic instead of a shoulder shrugging I don’t know-er?
Talk to your child from the day he/she is born. Have conversations with your child even before they can answer back. Use real words not baby talk. Talk about your day, where you are going, what you are doing. As your child begins to learn words and speak coherently then the fun really starts.
Read to your child. Read to your child. Read to your child. I cannot say this too many times. Read to your child from the day he/she is born! The earlier you start with books the better. Baby books are full of fun vocabulary and pictures. You may not be reading a story but you are engaging your child in language development.
Once your child is ready to sit for an entire picture book, a gloriously rich world of literature is available for enjoying. Picture books tell beautiful stories and often use more advanced language than you would think. One of my favorite lines is from Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin
Duck was a neutral party, so he brought the ultimatum to the cows.
I was reading this book to my son when he was two! Now, I’m not saying he understood every word but he understood the general idea of the story and was exposed to some pretty fantastic words!
Reread the same books to your child (if they aren’t already demanding you to do so). Children love familiarity and predictability. Children learn through repetition, gaining something new each time they hear the same story. If you really get tired of reading the same book over and over then try introducing another text with the same characters. The characters in books become your child’s friends and it is fun for them to hear another story about familiar friends.
Let your child speak. Once a child has some words then encourage them to use those word and don’t let them get away with pointing and gesturing. Before my younger son was verbal he would gesture to his mouth when he wanted his binky (pacifier). When he was two and specifically requesting the motorcycle binky, I knew it was time for him to give up the binky!
And remember children should be seen and heard!
Oh, this is a wonderful post! Thank you. Our grandson is about to celebrate his First Birthday! I chuckled that his aunt’s first present was a cloth book, but now I get it.
Once when our children were toddlers, a woman stopped me in the supermarket. She asked me, “Do you talk to your children?” When I confirmed, yes, I do indeed talk to our children, she observed knowingly, “It’s always easy to tell the children whose parents talk to them.”
Interesting, no?
I remember when the boys were newborns walking through the grocery store telling them all about the groceries I was buying. Now the boys never stop talking!!!
Jane – that is an awesome story (about the woman in the supermarket)!
AMAZING post! Absolute truth! It gave me the extra encouragement I needed to continue to do these things with Trey. It is so mind-blowing how much truth lies behind the idea of oral language kiddos being teachable! It is heartbreaking to meet the kids who are the shoulder shruggers, knowing that they are struggling. Trey is already talking like a maniac-if we’re not paying attention to him he makes it clear he is still trying to tell us something LOL. Awesome post! Love the blog-added it to my google reader just now 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it! Trey will be talking before you know it!!
Awesome post! I’ve been stressing the same thing for years. As a former preschool teacher, I understand exactly what you mean by the shoulder shruggers and I-don’t-knowers.
My daughter’s kindergarten teachers last year used to joke with me about how I can’t have any secrets because she would tell them absolutely everything! I love that! And she does drive me crazy sometimes . . . especially when I’m in the middle of working and all I hear is “mom, mom, mom, mom, mooooooom, MOM!” But she also gives me an endless amount of delight with everything she has to tell me!
I recently had a conversation with my daughter’s former preschool teacher about how adults need to shut up and listen to their kids once in a while because the kids have a whole lot to teach us as well!
Parents would be surprised (and embarrassed) to hear all that children share in class. As the saying goes – Little pitchers have big ears!
And yes, adults do need to listen to our children. I learn something from my own kids as well as my students all the time.
Fantastic post, my girl is trilingual, and she speaks a lot, very often she mixes the languages. We have been correcting her on spot most of the time, sometimes I wondered if it’s better to take it easy at this stage as she has just started her 1st year of kindergarten
That’s awesome that your little one speaks three languages! I wouldn’t correct her, just repeat back what she said with the correct word as a gentle reminder. If the child says, “We are going to my casa for lunch.” The parent could say, “Oh, you are going to your house for lunch.” I did this with my own children to help them with grammar and verb tenses. Child, “We goed to the store.” Parent, “Oh, you went to the store.”
My child was always a major talker and did great in school, so there’s probably something to what you’re saying. Speaking of my son, he was Wolverine when he was in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I took him across the street to trick or treat and their 5 year old son was Wolverine too. When the 5 year old saw my son, he was so scared, he started crying!
That’s really funny. Apparently the neighbor hadn’t seen himself in the mirror : )
[…] children form the building blocks for reading readiness? For starters, parents can nurture good oral language development , which I addressed in my post last weekend. Reading to and with your child every day is […]
I have a question for you since I can tell you know LOTS about this subject. I have twin fraternal 3 year old boys. One is on the spectrum the other is not. Both boys have speech delays but the delays are completely different from each other. My son who isn’t on the spectrum has articulation problems and issues similar to apraxia but he isn’t really apraxic. We know he has a huge amount of language he just can’t make his mouth work to get the words out. Both boys have been in all kinds of therapy since right after they turned two.
Anyway, my question is this: Do you think kids who have poor oral speech skills due to an actual speech delay/problem struggle as much as those that have poor oral speech due to lack of parent involvement?
My boys LOVE books and read many books throughout the day. Any time they bring me a book we stop to read. My son on the spectrum excels in letters and sounds and is already demonstrating a comprehension of sight words and uses his finger to follow along as we read. We do so much to encourage language development but I always worry it won’t be enough!
I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can to help them be ready for school in a few years!
Hi and thank you for reading my blog!
It sounds to me like you are doing everything in your powers to help your children. I have seen some children with articulation problems have trouble learning to read, but not as many children who have poor vocabulary. If your son is in therapy already that is great and will definitely help him be more successful in school. I am truly not an expert, just someone who has made observations in the classroom, read a lot, and talked to our school speech/language pathologist a lot. My gut instinct is that a child with articulation problems who has supportive parents and speech therapy will have an easier time than a child whose poor oral language due to lack of parental involvement. Those children suffer from a lack of vocabulary like I mentioned in the post. A speech/language pathologist would be better able to give you a more definitive answer regarding the correlation between speech delay and difficulties learning to read and write.
And my opinion is that you cannot read too much to your children. Jim Trelease’s book, The Read Aloud Handbook, contains some amazing stories about children overcoming odds because their parents read to them. I highly recommend the book – plus it has a great index of books to read.
Good luck to you and it sounds to me that you are doing everything you can already 😊
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