Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > December > 30 > Entry
A short bit of great advice
I don’t remember where first I read or heard this.
But somewhere along the line, someone gave me this advice when my oldest daughter was just an infant and I’ve found it to be among the most important things I’ve done to help my kids learn. It’s so simple it’s silly. Here it is:
Talk to them.
No baby talk. Don’t talk down to them. Don’t simplify your language. Use all the big words. If you say a word that confuses them or that you suspect they won’t understand, say it first, then define it. Praise them when they use a difficult word correctly. Sit down with them and look them eye-to-eye when you have a conversation.
Tell them stories. They can be stories of when they were babies. Or stories from you own childhood. Or stories out of children’s books, from newspapers or from history. Or just flat made up stories that you pull out of your hat while you’re sitting on their beds, tucking them in at night.
Answer their questions. Ask them questions. Ask them to predict what is going to happen next in a story you are telling. Have them tell a story you’ve told them back to you. Or nudge them to make up their own stories and tell it to you.
The more you talk to them, the more adept they’ll get at using language. And their vocabularies will grow.
So there it is. Such a simple thing. If you can just train yourself to talk to your kids this way out of habit, it will come quite naturally. And you can sit back and watch the little light bulbs go on over their heads as they learn.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Young Children
Comments
By MandyMo
January 3, 2006 1:51 PM | Link to this
I’d also like to add that if your kid asks a question, give him an HONEST answer. Even if that answer makes you uncomfortable, or if you think they’re not “old enough” to ask the question in the first place. If they’re old enough to ask the question, they’re old enough to hear the answer.By Margo
December 30, 2005 10:47 PM | Link to this
I’ve always enjoyed reading books to my 3-year-old son every night. But we have even more fun after those books close and we make up one story each night. I’ll ask him what the story should be about and he’ll respond with something like, “Mommy, Daddy and Quinn go to a big, big, big, big, big castle.” He usually wants ME to tell the stories but every once in awhile, at my urging, HE’LL tell the story. I delight in the journey he takes me on. At 3, the story-telling skills are already there.By Mary
December 30, 2005 9:04 PM | Link to this
Some of my fondest childhood memories are of a great uncle who would visit and tell me Uncle Remus stories - not by reading a book but from his own memory. He would also recite poetry “by heart”. I must have been four or five years old, but the memories are still very vivid.By Hayley
December 30, 2005 10:51 AM | Link to this
Scott, thanks for sharing this and reaffirming that my time with my daughter doesn’t always have to be spent playing with toys or going somewhere. She can learn just as much through talking and listening and just spending quality time with her family.