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| |    How to Nurture Language Development - Preschool Children by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. Between ages two and five, children acquire a tremendous amount of information about language. They go from saying brief two-word sentences to full, long phrases. They learn how to make past, present, and future tenses; how to devise singulars and plurals; and how to ask questions and make statements. They learn the basics of numbers, colors, and letters. By age five, the differences between children with different degrees of language skills can be striking. One child may have a vocabulary of four or five thousand words; another child only has one to two thousand. As children make the transition from preschool to kindergarten, one of the best predictors of school success is how many words they know and use. The key to helping a preschool child optimize her language skills is simply this: Expose her to lots of interesting things every day, and talk about those things with her right then and there, as well as later. Here are just a few of the ways you can make this happen: Talk about things you are doing around the house. Think of interesting words to describe the details of objects and processes. If you are washing dishes, you might be scrubbing or scouring, or using detergent, or cleanser, or elbow grease. Make these words be part of the experience. Tell stories. Young children love stories, and learn a lot of language from listening to them. Tell stories about things that really happened, especially events from your own family and past. And also tell make-believe stories. Stop from time to time and ask your child what should happen next. Any story that is about a young child facing some difficulty, and who succeeds because of courage or some other good quality, is a sure winner. Make sure there is some magic to the story. Preschool-age children have vivid imaginations that can transform your words about magic into intense images. Limit TV. While children can pick up some words from watching TV, it's not a great learning experience because it is so passive. Watching hour after hour of TV blunts a child's imagination--the TV does all of the imagining for the child! See Television's Impact on Your Child. Listening to stories does just the opposite: Children create the images in their own minds, and fill in the details with their imaginations. Make reading aloud a part of your everyday routine. Even if you just read for five minutes or less each morning and the same amount each night, you'll be exposing your child to a great wealth of new words. Don't be surprised if you start hearing some of these words slip into your child's everyday speech. Encourage creativity. Preschool children get excited about making things. Ask your child about her creations, and listen carefully to the answers. A simple way to ask is, "Tell me about your drawing (or painting, building, doll, food creation, etc.) Then say some things yourself, using interesting words to express your thoughts.
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