Did you know? Recent research has shown that there is a connection between the words pre-K teachers use and children’s future vocabulary and reading skills in elementary school.
Teachers often put a lot of effort into planning curricular activities that support literacy development. But, sometimes, many teachers forget that the most important moments for reading development occur between those activities, during the many conversations adults and children have sprinkled throughout each day.
These informal conversations are the perfect place to introduce young children to some “big” words. For example, if a teacher sees two four-year-old girls building a tower of blocks, instead of saying, “Wow! Look how tall that tower is!” she might say, “Wow! That tower is humongous! It’s so tall!” This clever teacher introduced a new word and gave the children a clue to its meaning in the very next sentence.
Here is another example: A caregiver sees that a three-year-old child is struggling, trying to hang up a spatula he just finished using, on a hook in the Home Center. One caregiver might say, “Are you sad because you can’t hang that up?” But the caregiver who remembered this great opportunity to support the child’s literacy development might say, “You look frustrated. Is that because it’s difficult to replace the spatula on the hook? May I help?” This young child may not be familiar with big words like “frustrated,” “difficult,” “replace” or “spatula” but he will begin to make sense of them in context, by listening to and watching the teacher as she uses them repeatedly over time.
Even very young children can benefit. Avoid talking “baby talk” to infants and toddlers, even if that seems to be their way of speaking. Help them increase their vocabularies and reading skills later in life by introducing them to all sorts of words that describe what you are doing at any given moment. “Now I am changing your diaper and cleaning you up,” “I have some green, strained peas for you to swallow,” and “Let’s get down on the floor together and look at these shiny, board books” are all “conversations” you can be having with the babies in your care from moment to moment. Even if they do not yet understand all of these words, you are preparing them for their futures by demonstrating the sounds, rhythms and patterns of language.
Being a CDA means that you are a competent early childhood professional. Using big words with little children, in conversations throughout each day, is one more fun, easy way that skilled professionals meet their goals for supporting children’s reading development. Try it today… you may find it to be valuable, refreshing or even spectacular!