This post on oral literacy is written by Teacher Thressa Johnson, a lead teacher at Joyce Preschool.
Seriously.
I’ll wait.
These twins’ speech patterns mirror adult speech patterns. They take turns talking, change their intonations to express different feelings, and use facial expressions and hand gestures to show their ideas in addition to telling them. These characteristics stem from interacting with talking adults, and, with time, will evolve into actual conversation, allowing these little guys to exchange information, make plans, and share stories.
Babies first experience language by hearing adults speak. Even before birth, embryos are tuned into the sounds around them, and are especially attracted to the sound of the human voice; so, yes, talking to pregnant bellies is important! Research shows that little ones who are spoken to regularly, in dynamic tones, and with varied vocabularies enter kindergarten with stronger pre-literacy skills, more ready to learn. Talking with our kids, then, is key – and it’s fun! We can narrate activities, sing songs, play games with alliteration and rhyme, tell stories, and read books. This includes narrating activities, singing songs, telling stories, and responding verbally to noises.
Minneapolis has a new campaign intended to help get parents talking to and with their young children, in order to prime them for later literacy, learning, and social skills. The motivation for the campaign is the fact that oral literacy is an important precursor to written literacy, a foundational skill in school and society.
Here at Joyce, so much of what we do practices our oral literacy skills. Singing our welcome and goodbye songs, counting together, inventing games in the classroom and in our outdoor space, talking about what words start with the same letter as our names, and having conversation about our families and lives while we eat snack are all important to developing students’ abilities to healthily and confidently speak and understand the world in our classroom, homes, and beyond. Plus, kids get to know and trust each other – and their teachers! – when we listen, share, and learn together.
Homes and schools need to be full of talk to increase children’s literacy skills. Talking with adults expands kids’ vocabularies, teaches them how to express themselves productively, gives them practice listening for information and making connections, and preps them for learning how to read and write later. Speech occurs naturally during daily activities like playing, traveling, and cooking. This gives children examples of realistic uses for speech, which then grows to include the written word. As families take advantage of these everyday opportunities, kids grow without even realizing they’re learning skills that will help them their entire lives.
Ideas for parents and families to grow oral literacy at home:
- Ask open-ended questions about school and play experiences. For example: What was the funniest thing that happened at preschool today? What would happen if a rocket ship landed in the middle of your dollhouse? Why do you think frogs have sticky skin?
- Surround kids and their play spaces with books and pictures to stimulate conversation, and make sure paper and pencils are nearby so kids can incorporate them into their play.
- When reading, ask kids what they already know about the book’s topic, what they see in the pictures, what they think will happen next, how the characters feel, etc.
- Have kids dictate letters to family members or grocery lists, and make sure they see you writing down what they say. But be careful, or you might end up with a shopping cart full of cookies.