Mtro.

Antonio
Guerrero
Basado en
las
investigacion
es de
Neil Fleming

Daily verbal interactions

Really make a meaningful difference in language development

The average three-year-old has heard 20 million words

Three year olds from very talkative, socially interactive families have
heard 35 million words

Three year olds of uncommunicative families have heard less than

10 million words

From Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children

by Betty Hart, Ph.D., & Todd R. Risley, Ph.D.

Vocabulary size
Greatly influenced by familial styles of talking and interacting with babies

The average child has about a 700 word vocabulary by the age of
three

Children of very sociable families have a vocabulary of about 1,100

words

Children of uncommunicative, non-reactive families have only about

a 500 word vocabulary

Beyond business talk

The more you talk, the higher the quality of the language

Quantity results in quality

All parents engage in business talk imparting necessary

information such as get down from there, or dont do that.
If you dont talk much, this terse business talk is the only language
children are exposed to

Talk more thats when children are exposed to complex and rich
communication

Richer language environment

Mainly determined by the amount of talking parents are doing with baby

The interaction with adult caregivers is the most important part of

babys world
The amount of interaction makes the environment richer

You dont have to worry about how to talk to your baby

Just talk a lot

Video
Encouraging Young Storytellers
Silver Spring, Maryland

Dr. Debra Jervay Pendergrass

Co-Director, STORIES

In this preschool, caregivers carefully monitor and use everyday

conversation to improve childrens oral language skills

For more information, see

Something Happened! Sharing Life Stories From Birth to Three

Interaction is key

Young children watch your language

They see your eyes light up
They watch your mouth
Its a dance

In addition to vocabulary, theyre learning the rewards of

social interaction

Interaction is key (cont.)

Babies dont learn very much from a distance. They learn very little
from watching words on TV or listening to the radio, for example

Children are immersed in the family culture of communication

(i.e., talking a lot or a little), and learn from it

TEATRO

LECTURA Y
MATEMTICAS

Non-verbal component to language

Beyond vocabulary, children are learning how to be social beings by

listening to talk

From listening, being talked to, and observing, children learn about:
Emotions
The social context that goes with words
Interactions in the family and the larger world

Assigning meanings to words

Children who have world experience from interactions, creative play,

or book reading are the ones who are best able to refine word
definitions
Exposure to an animal in a book or at the zoo gives them a greater
understanding of the definition

Teaching children the sounds that animals make is not just a game;
it is the process of refinement for a young child

Play is work for a child

Children love words

Saying words is a pleasant feeling

Making new sounds is fun for little children

Children can often pronounce words that are difficult for us as adults

They like multi-syllable words

Try teaching young children sophisticated words

What uncommunicative families should know

You dont need to talk differently to your child

You just need to talk more!

You already know how tap into that upbeat feeling and chit-chat,
play, comment, and even gossip with baby

Make those who were raised in uncommunicative families change

their way of communication
Encourage them to interact in more play talk

Parents who are reluctant readers

Perfect reading is not the point rather the interaction around the book is of
paramount importance

Professionals must provide models for what interaction looks like

and what were asking parents to do. Show parents:
that if you have a 30-page book and a three-year-old child, the point is
turning the pages together, the story, the interaction, the talking, being
involved with the child, not getting through all 30 pages
that wordless picture books help babies learn, too
how to tie books and book concepts to things that are important in their
own family

Children should feel that reading is a valuable and fun thing to do

with parents

Seven learning essentials

Seven kinds of behaviors that parents, teachers, older siblings, and anyone who loves
and cares about children should adopt

These essentials have an effect on brain neurochemistry and

increase intelligence, happiness, and a sense of well-being

1. Encourage exploration
Babies should learn through their senses (touch, taste, sound, smell,
and vision)
As they get older, they should learn through talking and demonstrating
Children benefit from actively experiencing both familiar and new places
and things

Seven learning essentials (cont.)

2. Mentor in basic skills
Mentoring is teaching with love, with the well-being of the learner
central to your activities
Showing the whats and whens, and the ins and outs of how things
work
Mentoring activity: teach a child the difference between up and
down and explain other opposites

Seven learning essentials (cont.)

3. Celebrate new skills
Developmental advances for learning new skills, little and big, and for
becoming a unique individual
When you celebrate, you reinforce good behavior by linking positive
feelings with your childs behavior

Seven learning essentials (cont.)

4. Rehearse (ensayar) and extend skills
Practice time
Help children get good at what theyve learned by practicing again and
again, in the same and different ways, with new people and new things.
Every behavior can be used in a more sophisticated way; its
multipurpose.

5. Protect from inappropriate treatment

Shield the child from inappropriate disapproval, teasing, neglect or
punishment, from a kind of harshness thats not right for their age
Dont get mad at a child for something they dont yet understand

Seven learning essentials (cont.)

6. Provide rich language interactions
Communicate richly and responsively with sounds, songs, gestures
and words
Childrens comprehension or understanding is much more advanced
than their ability to say words

Seven learning essentials (cont.)

6. Provide rich language interactions
Rich language is really engaging the child, through:
parentese: highly engaging speech that captures the
childs attention
silly talk
mimicking
games with sounds
Interaction with rich language helps children realize that the sounds
coming from them cause a response in the world

Seven learning essentials (cont.)

7. Guide and limit behavior
This will keep the child safe and teach whats acceptable and
whats not
Socialization: learning the rules of being a cooperative, responsive,
caring person
This can help language development by helping children know when
certain words or tones or volumes are appropriate (or inappropriate)
For example, appropriate volumes in a movie theater versus on a
playground

Late talkers

By age three, most children are talking

If a child is lagging in speech development, the problem could stem

from:

a hearing problem
a speech production problem
other special needs
a lack of experience with language

Very often, late talkers havent had enough people talk to them in
ways that can enhance their vocabulary

Late talkers

By age three, most children are talking

If a child is lagging in speech development, the problem could stem

from:

a hearing problem
a speech production problem
other special needs
a lack of experience with language

Very often, late talkers havent had enough people talk to them in
ways that can enhance their vocabulary

Books help develop oral language

Reading is an excuse adults sometimes need in order to interact

conversationally with children

Oral language development can come from:

making up stories
singing songs
telling nursery rhymes
reading and looking at books

For more information, see the Calif. Preschool Instructional Network's

Concepts About Print

Books help develop oral language (cont.)

Early concepts of print:

how to turn the page

books are filled with fun and adventure
books are colorful and pretty
books can be held and touched

Books are integrated with the tradition of oral language

For more information, see the California Preschool Instructional Network's

Concepts About Print

Communicating in languages other than English

The slow-down period

A natural part of the bilingual learning process
Children slow down, become listeners and observers of language,
then take off

As with other learned skills, you will see growth spurts for
monolingual and bilingual children alike in language

Communicating in languages other than English

(cont.)

Parents should speak in the language they feel comfortable using

Parents are their childs primary language model. They should

model:
good language skills
using whatever language the parent has good language skills in

Getting the word out to parents

Dont confuse people with too much complexity

The message is simple

Talk more
Interact with your child

Educators should provide lots of examples for parents to model at

home

Getting the word out to parents

Dont confuse people with too much complexity

The message is simple

Talk more
Interact with your child

Educators should provide lots of examples for parents to model at

home