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Talk, Read and Sing Together Every Day!

Tips For Preschool Teachers & Other Early Childhood Education Program Providers

A language rich environment is one in which children are surrounded by talking, singing, and reading and have many opportunities throughout their day, across all activities, to communicate with others and engage in back-and-forth conversations. A rich language environment is important to children’s early learning, and can have strong effects on early language, vocabulary, reading, and math skills, as well as on children’s social-emotional development.

Research shows that some young children are exposed to more language in their homes, early learning programs, and school settings, than other children. This difference in the number of words and back-and-forth conversations to which children are exposed is called the “word gap”.

Below are some tips that you can use to help bridge the word gap by enriching the language environment of all young children in your care, including children who do not speak yet, children with disabilities or delays, and children who are learning more than one language. Partner with families and encourage them to try these strategies at home, in their home language. For children with disabilities or delays, communicate with their other service providers and keep each other informed about the strategies you are using to enhance their language environment.

ENGAGING CHILDREN IN CONVERSATIONS

Teachers and families play a critical role in developing language-rich learning environments. Try these strategies to engage all children in rich conversations in English or in their home language.

• Get down on the child’s level.
• Tune in and listen to what the child says. If the child does not speak yet, tune into what they are doing or pointing to and use these moments to talk with them.
• Take turns talking. If the child doesn’t have language yet, that may mean you are talking and the child is communicating in nonverbal ways, such as through gestures, looks, smiles, babbles, and word approximations (children’s attempts at words).
• Talk about what the child is doing, what the child is looking at, or what the child is interested in.
• Ask questions that relate to the child’s experiences or interests.
• Add words or questions to what the child says or does and model new language.
• Give the child enough time to respond. For children who do not have language yet, this may be a nonverbal response, like a gesture or a look.
• Stay tuned in to the child’s facial and body expressions to make sure they are engaged.

EXPAND ON CHILDREN’S WORDS

Expanding on children’s language, nonverbally, in English or in their home language, is a meaningful way to extend conversations with children. Here are some key ways you can extend a conversation by expanding on what children say or communicate.

• Expand phrases so they are complete.
• Add novel and interesting words.
• Explain your thinking.
• Connect new and familiar concepts.
• Make phrases more complex.
• Summarize their thoughts.
• Relate to their lives and prior knowledge or experiences.

Repeat what the child says, and add a little MORE. You can add words that:

Describe:
Child: I saw Ana’s dog.
Adult: Oh, you saw Ana’s fluffy little dog?

Name:
Child: I like that.
Adult: I like that red shiny whistle too!

Provide more information:
Child: Yay! David is coming!
Adult: Yes, I heard your Uncle David is going to visit in August and you’ll go to the beach!

*Excerpts taken from “Talk, Read and Sing Together Every Day”
www.ed.gov – U.S. Department of Education.

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