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Teaching Tips July 2010 |
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Here's a list of the top five things you can do to improve your child's language and writing skills: • read aloud to your child • read aloud to your child • read aloud to your child • read aloud to your child • read aloud to your child This list works no matter how young or old your child is. Here's why. There are four levels of language development. These levels are sequential and descending. That is, the skills “trickle down” from the previous level. I often have parents ask me why a student is struggling with spelling and writing when the child's vocabulary is “off the charts” and the conversation is very mature for his or her age. Once again, here's why. 
The first level is the words a child can understand in conversation – the words he or she hears others speak. The next level is the words the child can use to carry on a conversation. The third level is the words the child can read. The last level is the words the child can spell and write in a sentence. From the figure you can see why a child may have a very advanced spoken vocabulary, but not be able to read or write very well. The child's learning style will greatly impact the development of these four levels. All language skills are learned naturally. Children learn to speak by hearing others around them say words. They begin by mimicking what they hear. When they say something that the parents think sounds like a word they know (usually mama, dada, or no!), the parents get all exited and praise the child for saying the word. This in turn encourages the child to make the same sound again...and again...and again, building up an impressive oral vocabulary in a relatively short amount of time. Before long, the child is able to string words together to make a sentence. The child learns to speak in complete sentences even though he or she has never learned formal grammar and has no clue what a subject and predicate are, let alone a noun, verb, and object. Children learn sentences by hearing others speak in sentences. That's why it is important for you to speak clearly, use complete sentences, and not talk down to your child. Reading aloud not only offers more variety to what the child is hearing, it models good grammar and writing style – as long as you chose quality books! Books for very young children often use rhyming words and have a certain rhythm or cadence to them that helps the child hear the basic sounds of our language (known as phonemic awareness). Young children quickly realize that the scribbles on the pages of a book stand for sounds and words that can tell a story (a necessary pre-reading skill). It's a good idea to begin with rhyming books such as the Dr. Seuss series to develop the child's ability to hear the sounds of our language.
Emerging readers can hear how to read fluently, with proper intonation and pausing, as you read aloud. Asking simple questions while reading helps to develop listening concentration and thinking skills such as “who did what when” (sequencing), “what will happen next” (predicting), and “what do you think of character so-and-so)” (personal interaction). Reading aloud to older children – even ones who are reading well on their own – continues to build listening and fluency skills and offers a change of pace for children once the curriculum shifts to reading to learn (where the children are reading textbooks to learn the material). By this stage of homeschooling, you should be familiar with your child's learning style, and can work on strengths and weaknesses through the questions you ask when reading aloud to older students. For example, if you have a very concrete, analytical learner, you can ask questions about symbolism and imagery used in the book, and use those examples to teach the student the opposite skills. If you have an abstract, global learner, you can ask about details to teach the child how to focus on specific elements of the story. Reading aloud also has the added benefit of family bonding time, spending time together in a meaningful way. Here's another tip that comes from the levels of language: the more a child reads on his/her own, the more words a child can learn to spell. Have you ever looked at a word you wrote and said, “That doesn't look right?” That's because your brain has seen the word so often in print that it registers the difference. The more words a child sees in print, the more the brain automates what those words should look like.
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