Talk, talk and more talk. It’s that simple.

We have read three articles this month which touch on the idea that successful preparation for school begins at home – and this doesn’t mean you need a lot of sophisticated tools. Child development experts at the University of Kansas conducted monthly visits with families of newborn children for three years. They found very significant vocabulary differences that could be directly related to spoken language in the home. On one end of the spectrum was a group of 3-year-olds with about 1,100 spoken words in their vocabulary. At the other end was a group with about 525 words. The first group had an average I.Q. of 117; the latter group had an I.Q. of 79. What was the root cause? Research showed that the more advanced 3-year-olds heard 487 “utterances” – anything from one word to a full sentence – from parents during every hour spent together. The group with the weaker vocabulary and I.Q. heard only 178 utterances per hour. Most of the utterances in the high-scoring group were positive: 86% encouragements vs. 14% discouragements. In the low scoring group, the ratio flipped: 27% encouragements vs. 73% discouragements.

The Blue Lake take on it:
Talk to your child as much as possible – narrate their lives – and strive for positive comments. Here are some helpful tips from Child Welfare League of America.