Don't Forget to Talk!!!

This is Amanda, the author of our second chapter 4 entry. She said, "This is me and my brother acting silly! I don't remember how old we are, but I still remember that day! We took turns smashing each other with our bean bags and laughing the whole time!" You can see she had some great play experiences as a child, and I think you'll enjoy reading her take on what Elkind has to say about play and language.

The authors opened the chapter by telling a story of a mother who was trying to teach her child new words by showing him flash cards. The baby was not interested and wanted one of his toys. The mother soon gave up and gave him his toy. When I first heard of parents using flash cards, I thought that maybe the cards would be helpful. But after reading this little story, I realized that flash cards may be too boring for babies. We all know that children have short attention spans, so how do we expect them to sit long enough for us to show them the flash cards?

The authors point out to us that the best way to help children learn language is to simply talk to them. They learn language when they are engaged in conversations. When I read this I thought of a boy I used to nanny. I used to talk to him all the time. His parents also would talk to him, and it wasn’t long before Jacob was talking all the time! He sounded so cute because he would use extremely large words for a boy his age; he sounded like a miniature adult!

One thing that I found interesting in this chapter is how fast children actually are learning new words. The chapter says that by the time a child is 18 months they usually know around 50 words. Then they have a “naming explosion” (p. 79). By this they mean the child starts learning around 63 words a week. This blows my mind. That is a lot of words for a child who just a few months earlier was only babbling. I started thinking to see if I remember the naming explosion happening to the children that I am around. Then I remembered a little girl at my church, Alana. I remember I had only heard her say a few words here and there. Then one day I saw her and she was naming everything. I remember talking to her mom and even her mom was surprised at how much Alana was starting to say. Now Alana is going to be four and is talking away!

As I read through this chapter I began to think about the children that I come in contact with everyday and where they are in their language development. It is amazing to me to notice how quickly their language skills grow. My little cousin Cheyenne is one that I thought about a lot. She is just two and a half and is in the stage of putting together words to make sentences. When I walk in the house she immediately runs through the house saying, “Manda here! Manda here!” or when my dad goes outside, she says, “Where Jesse go?” It is so amazing to me how fast she has progressed in language. It was only a year ago she could only say a few words and now she is talking in sentences.

After reading this chapter I began to realize just how important talking to children is for their language development. Talking with them helps them more than flash cards or a computer program. When you talk to children you are allowing them to interact and express their feelings. You are also letting them talk about what is important to them and while doing so you are helping them to master language. So when you want to help your child or any child you come in contact with to become better in their language skills, remember: Talk to them!