Last week I wrote about Sarah, my niece with such good early language skills. Her family played a strong role in developing her abilities. There are many ways parents ... and older siblings ... can, in everyday settings, in short time periods, make a major contribution to a young child’s speech and language development.
I said, and say again, young children imitate those in their environment they most admire, usually their parents or a big brother or sister. This imitation is commonly seen in the school play of young children. Every nursery school teacher tells of girls “playing house” and cooking, caring for the babies and of boys dressing in hats and ties and going to work.
Sexual stereotyping aside, these children are imitating what they see at home. The child who spanks the baby or who yells at the “husband” while pretending is also imitating what they see at home. Children who love books, love being read to, and pretend to read are imitating what they see at home.
What do you see your child doing in imitation of what he sees? What do you want your child to imitate? They need to see adults enjoying language, using it to have fun and for education. Through this observation, children make the connection between what you read and say to their learning of letters, sounds and reading. They will imitate by pretending to read labels and signs and books, you can depend upon it! When they do, encourage them and call what they are doing “reading”, and provide every opportunity for them you can.
Many opportunities for playing games with language exist. Early language development depends upon repetition (remember “forty thousand times with a smile”)? Over and over, parents patiently say, “say Mama”, and they say it in a sweet tone of voice (I think the really SMART moms tell the child, “Say Dada”!) Even simply repeating for a child the initial consonant sounds in a rhythmic pattern ... Mu-mu-mu-mu, Bu-bu-bu-bu-, Du-du-du-du ... provides an excellent model. Repeating some words just seems to make them funny.
An excellent source of repeating words and rhyme patterns are nursery rhymes. Children seem to love having nursery rhymes read again and again, indicating they are indeed learning from them. “Finger plays” are just that ... motions to accompany rhyming words. Moving hands upward while saying “up” reinforces concepts while having a good time.
Long before “rap”, children used chants while jumping rope ... and learned counting and practice language skills while having fun. Think of cheers heard at athletic events ... young kids want to say those long before they understand them! Remember tongue twisters? Try saying “rubber baby buggy bumper” ... it is silly, after a while, yet it is a good way for older children to practice language. Remember, “Say bell ... your beet smell” and other similar, silly grade school giggle getters? They are really more ... they provide practice in learning to hear similar sounds (“ell” endings, for example), which is an important process in language development.
The public library is a resource full of wonderful books of nursery rhymes, fingerplays, chants, riddles and games. Check it out ... you will make a great contribution to your child’s language development and have a great time doing it.
