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Little brains crave clear and precise information
D
uring the fi rst six years of life,
the child’s natural develop-
ment includes the forma on
of language, with the most intense
ac vity occurring during the fi rst
two and a half years of life.
It seems like common sense to
say that the more words a child
hears during those fi rst two years
of life the larger the child’s vocabu-
lary and ap tude for language will
be.
Research proves that intui ve
deduc on showing that children
whose parents spoke to them an
average of two to fi ve thousand
words per day started kindergarten
with an excellent vocabulary. Mul-
ply 5,000 words per day by fi ve
years and you have over 9 million
words. For the child who is exposed
to only 1,000 words per day, this
fi ve-year number drops to around
2 million words, and language skills
usually lag behind for a life me.
To get a handle what a thousand
words looks like; this column is
about 500 words. A normal rate of
speech is 120 words a minute, so
a thousand words is about eight to
nine minutes of speaking.
A fl ood of language does not
guarantee op mum language de-
velopment, though.
Children say the names of things
fi rst and we are a help to our chil-
dren if we name things in a clear
and precise way in order to avoid
confusion. I once spent a deligh ul
hour with a six-month-old handing
him three pieces of fruit and giving
him the name. A er he held the
banana for about thirty seconds,
I would say “banana.” This ac v-
ity mesmerized him. I’d hand him
another piece of fruit and say the
name. Apple. Orange. Banana. He’d
hand me back a piece of fruit, smil-
ing and confi dent that he
would get another piece,
along with a name. On
we went for an hour,
interrupted only by the
fact that he had a plane
to catch. His dad laughed
as they le the board-
ing area,
“I think
you had
him at
banana.”
sentences:
• Speak clearly.
• Name things one at a me.
• Whenever possible hand the
child the object being named.
• Speak using real words — no
goo-goo-duckie-poo baby talk.
• Read aloud for at least ten to
fi een minutes per day.
• Speak in whole sentences,
slowly, kindly and respec ully.
For example, “Orange. This is an
orange.”
• A er the child begins to speak
ask ques ons to encourage and
help the child to begin to form
_______________
> When did you eat an
orange?
> Why didn’t you like
the orange?
> Where did you put
the orange?
• Show words as
well as say them as
you read.
Research show
that perhaps the
biggest help to a child’s
language development
we can provide is ac ng
with loving-kindness. Talk,
read and listen to your child
every day with loving kind-
This experi-
ence with the
six-month-old em-
phasizes the ways
in which we as adults can enhance
language development before a
child begins to talk:
Maren
Schmidt
> Who gave you the
orange?
Kids Talk™
ness. You can’t talk to or love your
child too much. A smile may be
worth a thousand words.
________
Kids Talk™ is an award-winning
column dealing with childhood de-
velopment issues wri en by Maren
Stark Schmidt, M.Ed. She has more
than 25 years experience working
with young children and is the au-
thor of Understanding Montessori:
A Guide for Parents. Contact her via
e-mail at maren@kidstalknews.
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For information, 541-667-6091
www.umchs.org
