Language Development

Infants

What We Saw: The teacher talks to the young infant as she feeds her in the highchair. "It looks like you might need some help. Can you hold your cup? No?" The infant touches the wet washcloth on her tray. "You want to touch the washcloth. It's cold". When the infant is put on the floor to play, she reaches towards a beach ball. "You want that ball," the caregiver says, placing it in her lap. Later, when changing another infant's diaper, she hears the first infant vocalizing. The caregiver turns to look at the baby on the floor and copies the sound; "Aahhh! You wanted me to respond to you." The infant smiles broadly and relaxes.

What It Means: The caregiver is tuned in to each baby's signals. She reads the child's non-verbal cues (facial expression, body movements and vocalizations) to correctly interpret the baby's message. The changes in the baby's posture or expression let the caregiver know if she correctly interpreted the cues. When the caregiver provides the words for the child's message, she promotes receptive language acquisition and helps her feel understood. This sensitivity builds trust. Studies have shown that babies who have sensitive caregivers who respond quickly and appropriately to their cues, actually cry less often than babies whose caregivers are not as responsive. The babies learn that they do not have to resort to crying to get their needs met.

Infants

What We Saw: The teacher and infant were on the floor playing. The infant noticed the soft book on the floor. The teacher spread the book out in front of her, so that she could reach it. The infant began to make sounds, while she looked at the colorful pictures on the pages. The teacher told her, "You must like the book, because you're touching it and getting excited." The infant began to touch the book, and the tone in her voice became louder. The teacher allowed her to bang her hands onto the pages with sounds of excitement in her voice.

What It Means: Infants learn to recognize and understand words long before they can speak words themselves, so language development begins even in infancy. The best way to teach is like this teacher, by describing things the infant sees and does, systematically connecting the child's experience with the words that express it.

Toddlers

What We Saw: The teacher is reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to the children. She uses different voices for the characters. Children who know the story tell it with her. When she gets to the part about the leopard, one of the children points and attempts to say "leopard". The teacher stops while he tries to say it again. When he feels satisfied with how he said it she says, "Leopard, that's right."

What It Means: Reading favorite stories over and over again creates an environment in which children can use their memory to recall what will happen next and develop language skills as they recite the story along with the storyteller. When a child in this classroom takes special interest in the leopard the teacher pauses and waits to see what the child wants to contribute. She encourages him to try saying new words when she patiently waits for him as he struggles to say it correctly.

Toddlers

What We Saw: A toddler was looking up at the ceiling and babbling some words that the teacher could not quite understand. The teacher said to the child, "Are you talking about the mobile up there? The fan is blowing it." The child talked some more but the words were unintelligible. The teacher said, "Are you telling me about your day? We went to the multipurpose room. You saw your friends. You saw your mama." The child said, "mama". The teacher then went on to name all of the children that were in the classroom and as she did so she paused so the child could repeat the name of each child.

What It Means: Children at this age have better receptive language rather than expressive language. This means that their listening vocabulary is more developed than their use of words in spoken language. Taking cues from the child, elaborating on the days activities and speaking with the child in complete sentences enhances acquisition of language. Considering that most 18-month old children have begun a word-learning explosion, acquiring (on average) 9 new words a day, every day, throughout the preschool years, it is instrumental that teachers talk with children constantly.

Children With Special Needs

What We Saw: A child has just returned to the classroom from speech therapy. He is very excited and runs up to the teacher showing her the tag on his shirt. She reads the tag, "Ask me to say these words." The teacher asks him to say the first word, "spoon". He tells her he doesn't know how. The teacher playfully says, "I bet you do. You're just hiding them in there." She tickles his stomach. She says "spoon" again and this time he repeats it. He repeats all the words and the teacher gives him a hug. He smiles with a sense of pride in his accomplishment.

What It Means: Creating continuity between all the important settings in a child's life leads to higher quality early education. In this case, continuity between the classroom and special needs services was clearly evident. This teacher knew how to use a technique of playful physical contact to act as an icebreaker, drawing the child out. She modeled each word for the child and he repeated them. His speech therapy continued right into the classroom.

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