Toddler
What We Saw: The children were
playing in the gym on small scooters. The teacher rode
with them and began to make sounds such as "Vroom,
Vroom," & "Beep, Beep!" One nonverbal
child began to repeat the sounds while she was playing.
This teacher became excited because this was the first
time that she heard the child use words in her room. After
the child made the sounds the teacher kept repeating them
in an attempt to keep her vocal. This child felt her teacher's
excitement by watching her facial expressions and hearing
her response. She continued to vocalize in the gym that
morning.
What It Means: Repeating children's
vocalizations is so simple, but so effective for language
development. This validates the child's language and it
encourages them to keep talking. Through language imitation,
the teacher is reinforcing to the child that what they
have to say is important and worth repeating. Children
sense this excitement when teachers respond and it influences
them to continue talking. Teachers can expand on language
acquisition by adding more words after the child has
mastered the original words. This will further increase
vocabulary and language acquisition of toddlers.
