Involvement of parents and day care educators iin the development of children's language

When children discover reading...

Starting elementary school usually means learning how to read. In order to be successful in this difficult and necessary task, children must have and use many aptitudes. For instance, children learn that words are made of phonemes, the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language, must have an excellent understanding of literature and be well-versed with various materials such as books. Recent studies have shown that both parents and educators can encourage children develop those skills from early childhood.

First, a researcher in Canada sought to determine the impact of exposure of toddlers to writing with reading or other form of letters and words teaching on the reading skills in third grade. She consequently followed 168 children from families of middle and upper classes in the Ottawa area, Ontario, for five years. The researcher came to the conclusion that exposure at an early age to various printed material contributed to the development of better reading skills in the third grade. The association between parental education and reading performance is a lot less clear. Nevertheless, there is probably a key element in kids success in learning reading which is an awareness of phonology, which can be stimulated by punctuating on reading rhymes and poetry.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky!"
The Canadian study also shows the importance of exposure in young children to language, especially songs rhymes and poems. Programs where parents and children listen to simple songs and rhymes should therefore be favored. One of the biggest challenge in helping families, especially poor families, is the integration of reading in an every day basis among preschool children. For many parents, buying books is not an option. On the other hand, many parents feel uneasy to go to the library. More research needs to be done on this subject, in order to develop more programs to include families of all socioeconomic levels in reading and writing, an important element of early childhood.

Forming educators pays off
Many children spend several hours in day care every day, researchers have also begun to examine the impact of interactions educators-children on language development. Hence, with no surprise, researchers found that when teachers responded better to children efforts of communicating, encouraged conversation among peers and helped the children to express their ideas and expand their vocabulary by suggesting them new words and concepts, those children developed better communication and language skills. Another Canadian study showed that children benefit when their teachers have been trained to provide language interactions of better quality. Children whose teachers were trained to use more combinations of words tend to speak more often with their peers.

This research confirms what many have observed. It illustrates the difference such a training can make. Moreover, the training has not created new and costly requirements for educators nor it resulted in additional work for them. The training only necessitated to increase their level of awareness. By making minor changes in their interactions with kids, educators can make so great impact on children's language. We simply to improve the quality of interaction kids-educators.

References

Sénéchal M, LeFevre JA. Parental involvement in the development of children's reading skill: A five-year longitudinal study. Child Development 2002;73(2):445-460.

Girolametto L, Weitzman E, Greenberg J. Training day care staff to facilitate children's language. American Journal of Speech - Language Pathology 2003;12(3):299-311.

Canadian language % literacy research network

Centre of Excellence for Children's Well-Being http://www.excellence-jeunesenfants.ca/