• Define Oral Language

• Identify Key Developmental Milestones

• Discuss Challenges and Barriers

• Review Research

• Practice Oral Language Strategies

• Discuss ways Parents can Support Language

*National Early Literacy Panel Report, 2008

Today’s Workshop Agenda

• The ability to produce and comprehend

spoken language (NELP, 2008, p. 43)

• Receptive/expressive vocabulary and

language

• Definitional vocabulary

• Grammar

• Listening comprehension*NELP = The National Early Literacy Panel Report, 2008

http://familieslearning.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/nelp-report.pdf

What is Oral Language?

• Oral language interventions are

most effective when they start

with children birth-3

• Focusing on many oral language

skills together will have a greater

impact

Key Findings

Challenges

Addressing the Word Gap:

• By the age of 3, children born into low-income families hear roughly 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers.

– Hart & Risley (1995) – Meaningful Differences

– Dana Suskind, M.D. (2015) – 30 Million Words

The most important thing we can do for young children is to have conversations with them.

Preschool Oral Language Development –Challenges

• What barriers do you see that may interfere with typical language development and contribute to the word gap?

Small Group Discussion

It’s not culture or ethnicity – it’s poverty

• Low SES families talk mostly about daily concerns– Results in children hearing and speaking only concrete or

functional language (Nelson, 2010)

– “Business talk” (Hart & Risley, 1995))

Let’s clarify: Poverty doesn’t cause children to have poor or delayed language skills – but the circumstances around the poverty situation create the behaviors in families that affect language.

Preschool Oral Language Development –Evidence

Effects of poverty on oral and literate language development (Nelson, 2010)

• Generational poverty affects a family for two generations or longer

• Language characteristics associated with low-SES background

• Health care, nutrition, ear infections can affect language

• Correlation between adult education levels and income – most highly related is mother’s educational level.

• Caretakers with little formal education.

Preschool Oral Language Development –Evidence

• Developmentally, children 3-6 years are still learning their first language

• Children learning two languages are often slower to be fluent in both—this is normal

• ELL students can come to preschool in various stages of language development in two languages– Fluent in English, no native language

– Fluent in native language, limited English

– Learning two languages simultaneously

Challenge: Language Development and Dual Language Learners

• History of hearing difficulties

• Past ear infections

• Undetected developmental issues which can lead to delays in language and speech—in any language

• Lack of referrals for intervention services

• Lack of socialization—so children can have conversations with each other

• Lack of conversations with adults

Challenge: Language Development and Undetected Issues

Evidence

• The National Early Literacy Panel Report summarized the scientific evidence on early literacy development and on home and family influences on that development.

• An empirical study in which data was collected, analyzed, and evaluated in an objective and systematic way to answer specified research questions.

Preschool Oral Language Development –Evidence

• The research questions:– What are the skills and abilities of young children (age birth – five

years) that predict later reading, writing, or spelling outcomes?

– Which programs, interventions, instructional approaches have contributed to later outcomes in reading, writing or spelling?

– What environments and settings have contributed to gains linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, and spelling?

– What child characteristics are linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, or spelling?

Preschool Oral Language Development –Evidence

The NELP:

• Identified the evidence about building children’s language and literacy skills in the preschool period

• Identified the early skills that give children the strongest foundation for learning to read, spell, and write.

RESULTS: The precursor skills with instructional evidence are:

– Alphabet Knowledge

– Phonological Awareness

– Writing/Name Writing

– Oral Language Development

Preschool Oral Language Development –Evidence

Preschool Oral Language Development –Evidence

.

Conventional Literacy

Early & Emergent Literacy Development

Phonological

Awareness

Oral

Language

Talking &

Listening

Sounds of

Language

Books &

Reading

Letter Knowledge

& Writing

Reading Writing

Print

Knowledge

Spelling

Home Literacy Environment

Oral Language Milestones

Birth to 3 Months:

• Coos and makes pleasure sounds

• Has a special way of crying for different needs

4 to 6 Months:

• Babbles in a speech like way using sounds that begin with p, b, and m

• Laughs

• Makes gurgling sounds when playing with a caregiver

Oral Language Milestones

7 Months to 1 Year:• Understands words for common

items such as cup, shoe or juice• Babbles using long and short groups

of sounds ( tata, upup, bibibi)• Babbles to get and keep attention• Has one or 2 words

1 to 2 Years:

• Puts 2 words together

• Use many different consonant sounds at the beginning of words

• Uses some one or two word questions (Where kitty?)

Oral Language Milestones

2 to 3 Years:• Uses 2 or 3 word phrases • Uses k, g, f, t and d sounds• Names objects to ask for them• Speaks in a way that is understood

by family members and friends

3 to 4 Years:

• Answers simple who, what, where and why questions

• Uses sentences with four or more words

• Speaks easily without having to repeat syllables or words

Oral Language Milestones

4 to 5 Years:• Uses sentences that give many

details• Tells stories that stay on topic• Uses rhyming words• Says most sounds correctly (except

,s,r,v,z, ch, sh and th)

National Institute on Deafness and Communications Disorders (NIDCD), 2016

Preschool Oral Language Development –Strategies

So let’s look at some of those strategies.

• Open-Ended Questions

• Adult/Child Interactions

• Talking and Listening

• Working with Dual Language Learners

• Dialogic Reading

Preschool Oral Language Development –Strategies & Skills

Preschool Oral Language Development –Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions…• Need more than one-word answers• Can have many right answers

Sample questions:• What else could (character) do?• What would you do?• What do you think will happen next?• What would happen if…?• Why do you think that happened?

Preschool Oral Language Development –Open-Ended Questions

Expanding Child Responses

• Ask a question or make a comment

• Think about the child’s response

• Respond by adding a little more

• Repeat—Child says it again

• Child’s Level

• Respond to child (verbal and non-verbal)

• Turn taking

• Parallel Talk

• Self Talk

• Build on children’s language and ideas

Preschool Oral Language Development-Adult-Child Interactions

• Review Handout

• How can these be used

– with teachers?

– with parents?

Preschool Oral Language Development-Adult-Child Interactions

• Language development starts at birth

• Support language with age-appropriate experiences

• Young children have receptive language and expressive language

• Meaningful conversations are building blocks for future success in reading and writing

Preschool Oral Language Development –Talking and Listening

• All children need meaningful conversations with significant adults and other children

• All children need experiences that build vocabulary and a knowledge of their world

• The amount of parent-child talk experienced in the first years of life impacts that quality of children’s language

Preschool Oral Language Development –Talking and Listening

Activity

• Choose a picture from your table

• Work with a partner

• List ten descriptive words

Preschool Oral Language Development –Talking and Listening

Discussion

• Was it easy or difficult to come up with descriptive words?

• How can you use this information?

Preschool Oral Language Development –Talking and Listening

• Reinforcing. Using along with a gesture, an action, object, picture, or body language to convey a message.

• Repetition. Repeating common words and phrases and practicing new vocabulary

• Expanding and Extending. Beginning where the child is and adding more words and meaning

• Scaffolding. Understanding what a child can do with or without support and taking to next level.

• Speak clearly and slowly.

Language Development and Dual Language Learners--Strategies

• …“sharing books with young children has a significant, substantial, and positive impact both on young children’s oral language skills” (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008, p. 155)

• Dialogic reading was found to have potentially positive effects on communication and language competencies for children with disabilities (What Works Clearinghouse, 2010)

Dialogic Reading

The research says that children who have been exposed to dialogic reading:

– Show gains in language development

– Have larger vocabularies

– Are better able to identify sounds and letters

– Show stronger emergent writing skills

– Have an enhanced knowledge of print

– Gains are retained over time

Dialogic Reading

• A conversation about a story

• Ask questions

• Builds vocabulary

• Builds expressive language

Dialogic Reading

• Adult/Child

• Interactive

• Around a familiar book

• Child is active participant

• Adult engages child

• Turn taking

Dialogic Reading

• Storybooks

• Rich narrative

• Action

• New words

• Novel ideas or content

• Interesting to child

• Rich illustrations

Choosing Books for Dialogic Reading

Why involve parents?

– First and most important teacher

– Most consistent presence

– Greatest influence on child’s development

Preschool Oral Language Development –Parent Engagement

Supporting Parents

– Share information

– Make materials available

– Model strategies

Preschool Oral Language Development –Parent Engagement

Preschool Oral Language Development –Parent Engagement

• Newsletters

• Websites

• Blogs

Tell me

• Face-to-face conferences

• Classroom volunteers

• Modeling

Show me• PACT Time

• Family events• Parent skill

building

• Home Visits

Involve me

Talk with your child!

• Tell stories

• Describe your actions

• Describe your child’s actions

• Expand words

• Have conversations with your child

• Ask questions that have more than one or two word answers

Preschool Oral Language Development –Parent Engagement

Discussion

Andrea BrownTeam Leader, Family Learning

National Center for Families Learning

abrown@familieslearning.org502-584-1133 ext. 174