Levelling Up Your Child's Language Skills Everyday
- Jan 22, 2021
- 4 min read
When it comes to language, we use it every day, telling our kids to eat their food, chatting with them about their day. But if we want to boost their language skills, constant exposure is key. Especially when our child starts school and begins their journey alone in a foreign environment, language is essential tool n delivering their messages across e.g. asking for help.
Generally speaking,
Kids begin their first word no later than 18 months (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2006).
1-year-olds can understand directions and are trying to words to express themselves (Levine, L., & Munsch, J, 2012).
2-year-olds can be understood at 25-50% by a third person, meaning anyone except those closest to the child (Ganger & Brent, 2004).
3-year-olds can be understood at around 75-100% by a third person. Parents can have easy conversations, able to answer who, what when where questions, explain themselves, and sequence their thoughts and ideas (Levine, L., & Munsch, J, 2012).
Studies show that how parents behave linguistically has a great influence on their child's language development (Ferjan Ramírez et al., 2020). That being said, the prerequisite point of this blog is that we as parents and role models have good language skills, which means avoid swearing in front of our kids, using abbreviations ...
I am a strong believer that learning can be fun. One powerful way to levelling up our child's language skills is routines, incorporating them into their everyday lives. These are rather passive methods, hugely different from the traditional 'Listen to me!' way if you know what I mean.
Here are 6 best and creative ways to get you started, consider them as the acronym 'AVSSTE', that does not mean a lot but hopefully helps to remember:
1. Audiobooks
Listening to audiobooks a perfect way for exposure t language without doing anything. Create a habit of playing audiobooks when for instance, in the car, at home feeling bored. Research including a group of children from age 4, audiobooks is beneficial for language competence and development of literacy skills (the ability to read and write)(Alcantud-Díaz, G, 2014). For older kids, this is also a great opportunity to learn idioms, new expressions, etc (Wolfson, 2008).
2. Visits to book stores/libraries
Make books a thing in your life! Bring your child regularly to your local book store or library and have them choose whatever they want to read, make them excited about it. We do not want to force them to read specific books, don't make it a chore, make reading fun and interesting, This would also be a great way to observe what their interests are.
3. Songs
For younger ones, listening to nursery rhymes and songs, in general, would be beneficial.
younger kids: listening to songs, even in the background, get familiar with sounds rhymes.
4. Storytime
As mentioned in our past blog- the power of shared book reading, books are powerful tools to develop language skills in kids. They enjoy reading about fictional imaginary worlds. Create a habit of a bedtime story or bringing a book whenever you are out to keep them occupied especially during long waiting hours in administrative offices.
5. Talk talk talk!
'I speak at home all the time anyway, telling my kids to tidy their beds, we chat about their day in school.'
As simple as this may sound, should we want our kids to be effective communicators, language-rich conversations are needed. This is not as simple as calling them to tidy up their rooms occasionally or asking yes-no questions. Most parents overlook the importance of language-rich conversations. We will talk in more detail about this in our future blog but the big takeaway here is:
1. Allow time for them to speak
2. DO NOT override the conversation
3. Create more opportunity to speaking by asking open-ended questions
e.g. What do you like about school? instead of e.g. 'Do you like the teacher?'
6. Explore!
Last but not least, let them explore! Whether it'll be giving them a new DIY kit, introducing them to roller skating, or going camping, the key here is to introduce them to new things. Of course, don't overwhelm them with new things every day, but regularly. This creates wonderful opportunities for them to share their experience, be it at home or in school. Talk about how they feel after the experience, what they like and do not like about it, the sky is the limit!.
References:
Alcantud-Díaz, G. (2014). Audiobooks: improving fluency and instilling literary skills and education for development / Audiolibros: mejorar la fluidez e inculcar habilidades literarias y educación para el desarrollo. Tejuelo (Trujillo), 20(1), 111–125.
Ferjan Ramírez, N., Lytle, S. R., & Kuhl, P. K. (2020). Parent coaching increases conversational turns and advances infant language development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(7), 3484–3491. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921653117
Ganger, J., & Brent, M. R. (2004). Reexamining the Vocabulary Spurt. Developmental Psychology, 40(4), 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.4.621
Levine, L., & Munsch, J. (2012). Child development : an active learning approach . SAGE.
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Cristofaro, T. N., Rodriguez, E. T., & Bornstein, M. H. (2006). Early Language Development: Social Influences in the First Years of Life. In L. Balter & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues (p. 79–108). Psychology Press.
Wolfson, G. (2008). Using Audiobooks to Meet the Needs of Adolescent Readers. American Secondary Education, 36(2), 105–114.
I hope today's topic has been useful, language is a complex topic as numerous aspects are considered, e.g. vocabulary, grammar...., but I am sure with our AVSSTE, your child's language skills would be on the positive side. Lastly, should you be worried about your child's language development, do not hesitate to find a speech pathologist about it.
*This blog is inspired by a podcast by Feed Play Love, featuring Sonia Bestulic, founding director of Talking Heads Speech Pathology in Sydney and host of Australia based podcast Chatabout Children.
Please let me know other topics you would like us to cover in my next blog! Otherwise, have a great day and don't forget to smile.
Joyce Lau
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