How can young children best learn languages? The British Council's Tracey Chapelton explains how parents of young children can lay the foundations for success. Children's brains are highly active Your child is unique, but what all children have in common is natural curiosity and an innate ability to learn. Kuhl states that babies and young children are geniuses at acquiring a second language. 'Babies', she says, 'can discriminate all the sounds of all languages... and that's remarkable because you and I can't do that. By exposing children to other languages at an early age, you are giving them the opportunity to tap into their natural ability to hear and distinguish the sounds of other languages, and their capacity to make sense of what they are hearing. Children make language-learning look easy Communication is something that children do to help them achieve something else, and they are blissfully unaware of the enormous amount of learning taking place. Children's emotional environment is important for learning
Listen to Your Mother Young children face a remarkable challenge in learning to use the language of their culture. Toddlers vary widely, however, in the rate at which they learn new words.1 A team of Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers set out to ask whether and how children's language environment can impact vocabulary development. In their study of mother-child pairs from low-income families, they found that mothers who used many different words (not just many words) had toddlers with faster growth in vocabulary use. During the toddler and preschool years, most children learn to use hundreds of words, combining them into sentences and engaging in conversation with others. From previous research, we know that variation in vocabulary growth relates to child characteristics like gender, and also to parental factors. What did they find? 1Huttenlocher, J., Haight, W., Bryk, A., Seltzer, M., & Lyons, T. (1991). 2Bauer, D.J., Goldfield, B.A., & Reznick, J.S. (2002). 3Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1998).
How young children learn English as another language By Opal Dunn, educational consultant and author Introduction Young children are natural language acquirers; they are self-motivated to pick up language without conscious learning, unlike adolescents and adults. They have the ability to imitate pronunciation and work out the rules for themselves. Read the notes below about young children learning English as another language. The advantages of beginning early Young children are still using their individual, innate language-learning strategies to acquire their home language and soon find they can also use these strategies to pick up English. Stages in picking up English Spoken language comes naturally before reading and writing. Silent period When babies learn their home language, there is a ‘silent period’, when they look and listen and communicate through facial expression or gestures before they begin to speak. During this time parents should not force children to take part in spoken dialogue by making them repeat words. Understanding
Enhancing the Language Development of Young Children When we first brought our daughter home from the hospital I was inexperienced. Mother came to help and in her always wise and gentle way said, "Honey, you need to talk to that baby." What wonderful advice! Mother's counsel paid great dividends and I remembered it when our granddaughter was born. As the nurse measured and cleaned and dressed that brand new soul, I talked to her...and she paid attention. She was interested in this talking thing. Kenzie is one year old now, and she is already an expert at communicating her wants and needs. How Do Children Learn Language? Nativist TheoryNativists argue that children have an inborn desire to make sense of the world. Waddington (1957) explains that certain behaviors are learned easily or canalized by members of a species. Noam Chomsky (1972) took the nativist explanation a bit further. When children are born they have the ability to differentiate any sound in any language system (Werker & Lalonde, 1988). What happened? Infants Toddlers Lust, B.
Let's Talk What do babies need in order to learn and thrive? One thing they need is conversation — responsive, back-and-forth communication with their parents and caregivers. This interactive engagement is like food for their developing brains, nurturing language acquisition, early literacy, school readiness, and social and emotional well-being. A dispiriting number of children don’t get that kind of brain-fueling communication, research suggests. In a commentary published today in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, Rowe joins forces with Boston Medical Center pediatrician Barry Zuckerman to offer specific guidance to pediatricians and parents about just what kind of talk is most important, at what ages and stages in a child’s growth. Quality Talk in the Early Years “Parents should not get the wrong message and be stressed out about talking all the time or meeting a set number of words per day,” Rowe and Zuckerman note. Here’s what that looks like at different ages. Additional Resources
Why does my toddler love repetition? Paediatric speech and language therapist. It may test your patience when your toddler demands 'Row, row, row your boat' for the 10th time. But there's a good reason for her insistence. Toddlers love repetition because it helps them to learn, and because it's familiar and comforting. From around the age of two, you will notice your toddler repeating the same words and phrases constantly. Through repeating things, your toddler is able to take in new information each time. And she will love stories and nursery rhymes with repeated phrases, because she can join in. A small study has found that repetition of stories may help children to learn new words. After hearing her favourite book many times, your toddler may even remember it well enough to add the endings to some of the sentences. Repetition is also comforting for your toddler. As your toddler learns more about the world around her, she may at times feel overwhelmed by all the new information she's taking in.
How can I help my child to start talking? (Video) Health visitor Sara Patience describes how you can help develop your child's language skills by talking and playing with her. Show transcript Hide transcript How can I help my child to start talking? Sara: “You want this one? Between 12 months and two-and-a-half years, there is a lot of language development, and you will hear your child start to use more and more words. Why does my toddler love repetition? - BabyCentre Paediatric speech and language therapist It may test your patience when your toddler demands 'Row, row, row your boat' for the 10th time. But there's a good reason for her insistence. Toddlers love repetition because it helps them to learn, and because it's familiar and comforting. From around the age of two, you will notice your toddler repeating the same words and phrases constantly. Through repeating things, your toddler is able to take in new information each time. And she will love stories and nursery rhymes with repeated phrases, because she can join in. A small study has found that repetition of stories may help children to learn new words. After hearing her favourite book many times, your toddler may even remember it well enough to add the endings to some of the sentences. Repetition is also comforting for your toddler. As your toddler learns more about the world around her, she may at times feel overwhelmed by all the new information she's taking in.
What Parents Can Gain From Learning the Science of Talking to Kids | MindShift | KQED News The widening education gap between the rich and the poor is not news to those who work in education, many of whom have been struggling to close the gap beginning the day poor children enter kindergarten or preschool. But one unlikely soldier has joined the fight: a pediatric surgeon who wants to get started way before kindergarten. She wants to start closing the gap the day babies are born. When Dr. Dana Suskind began doing cochlear implants on infants at the University of Chicago—a cutting-edge surgical technique that allows once-deaf babies to hear—in her follow-ups with families she noticed a stark difference in how the now-hearing children acquired language. Once they could hear, some children’s language skills thrived and grew, while others languished. The difference turned out to be the words children heard from their parents and caregivers, millions of them. For Suskind, a lightbulb went on. Bringing Parents On Board Of course, some words are more powerful than others. * Tune In.
How young children learn English through play As we release Learning Time with Timmy – our first app for early-years learners of English – Danitza Villarroel, a teacher on our Learning Time with Shaun and Timmy course in Chile, explains the importance of learning through play, and offers a few tips for teachers new to this age group. Teaching English to pre-school children can be daunting for teachers new to this age group. Young children have shorter attention spans than older children and adults, and they're still learning their mother tongue. The importance of active learning Active learning means fully involving children in the learning process. Promoting learning through play Play is a very significant part of what life means to children at this stage of their development. Encouraging children's creativity and imagination It's important that we help young learners develop beyond mere language abilities. Developing children's social skills Developing social skills is also very important at this learning stage.
How can I help my child to start talking? (Video) - BabyCentre Health visitor Sara Patience describes how you can help develop your child's language skills by talking and playing with her. Show transcript Hide transcript How can I help my child to start talking? Importance of play for babies & children Play is more than just fun for babies and children. It’s how they learn best, and how they work out who they are, how the world works and where they fit into it. You can read this article in a selection of languages other than English. The importance of play Playing is one of the most important things you can do with your child, because play is essential for your child’s brain development. Play also helps your child: build confidence feel loved, happy and safe develop social skills, language and communication learn about caring for others and the environment develop physical skills. Your child will love playing with you, but sometimes she might prefer to play by herself and won’t need so much hands-on play from you. Different types of play Unstructured, free play is the best type of play for young children. This is play that just happens, depending on what takes your child’s interest at the time. Examples of unstructured play might be: Structured play is different. Languages other than English
The magic of child-directed play Finding the child-parent play balance