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Fall 2010 DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD Volume 38, Number 3 3

Everything teachers say—questions, comments, guidance—can influence what childrenlearn. Intentional, purposeful conversations support children’s cognitive, language, so-cial, and emotional development.

Why do teachers talk with children? There are manyexcellent reasons, such as these:

• Children enjoy social conversations with adults.• A few enticing words can encourage children to

engage in a particular activity or behavior.• Thought-provoking questions or using new words

can extend children’s thinking and curiosity.• Adults can directly answer children’s questions.

A great deal of research supports the value of talkingwith young children.

• When adults purposefully talk more with chil-dren, children develop larger vocabularies (Hart& Risley, 1999; Hoff & Naigles, 2002).

• When children have larger vocabularies, they be-come better readers in middle childhood (Snow,Burns, & Griffin, 1998).

• When adults talk to children with longer, morecomplex words and sentences, children havehigher IQ scores (Hart & Risley, 1999).

• When adults talk with children in a responsiveand sensitive way, they encourage children’s socialand emotional development (Ensor & Hughes,2008; Harris, 2005).

In general, talking with young children encouragesdevelopment in many areas: spoken language, earlyliteracy, cognitive development, social skills, and emotionalmaturity. Speaking with children in increasingly complexand responsive ways does this even better.

This article explores research findings about the effectsof adult’s language and conversations on children’sdevelopment. It also discusses ways that teachers caninclude more intentional talk in their daily routines andclassroom activities to support children’s learning.

How Adult Talk Supports Children’s DevelopmentChildren’s Vocabularies Grow

When two researchers looked at families with youngchildren who were learning to talk, they found that nomatter what a family’s economic or social situation, the

Talking With Young Children:How Teachers Encourage Learning

Joan E. Test, Denise D. Cunningham, and Amanda C. Lee

Joan E. Test, Ed.D., is Assistant Professor, ChildhoodEducation and Family Studies, Missouri State University,Springfield. She is the faculty liaison to the Child Devel-opment Center at Missouri State and teaches courses inchild and human development. Her research focuses onthe influence of social interactions on children’s develop-ment in families and early childhood settings.

Denise D. Cunningham, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor,Childhood Education and Family Studies, Missouri StateUniversity, Springfield. She has many years of experienceas the director of an early childhood center and as a teacherand literacy coach in the St. Louis Public Schools. Her re-search interests include creating high-quality environmentsto promote children's language and literacy development.

Amanda C. Lee, B.S., is a Lead Teacher in the Child De-velopment Center, Missouri State University, Springfield.Lee is pursuing her Master’s degree in Early Childhood Ed-ucation at Missouri State. She has had the opportunity to“put theory into practice” and use rich, meaningful languageevery day with the children in her classroom!

Why Talk WITH Young Children?Talking with young children encourages development in

Speak with children in increasingly complex and responsive ways.

• spoken language• early literacy• cognitive

development

• social skills• emotional maturity

4 Volume 38, Number 3 DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD Fall 2010

more that parents engaged in dailyconversations with their children, themore rapidly the children’s vocabulariesgrew (Hart & Risley, 1999).

Nearly all families talk with theirchildren to get things accomplished,such as eating, getting dressed, andkeeping children safe and occupied. Theextra conversation, however, done justfor the pleasure of a social exchange,makes a real difference. The amount ofthis extra conversation is highly relatedto children’s vocabulary growth.

• The more language that 2-year-olds hear, the more rap-idly they add words to theirvocabulary (Hoff & Naigles,2002).

• The richer the vocabularyand the more complex thesentences that children hear,the more quickly their lan-guage develops beginning atage 2 (Hoff & Naigles, 2002;Weizman & Snow, 2001).

• The helpfulness of speech forexplaining a word’s meaningreally makes a difference inchildren’s language develop-ment (Weizman & Snow,2001).

• The more different types ofwords that adults use withyoung children, the larger vo-cabularies preschoolers de-velop (Pan, Rowe, Singer, &Snow, 2005).

In summary, talking more, helpingchildren understand the meanings ofwords, and speaking in richer, morecomplex ways leads to more rapidgrowth in children’s language.

Children’s Literacy Blossoms

Spoken language is the foundationfor reading and writing. In the

preschool years, children learn soundpatterns, word meanings, and sentencestructure, as well as how to participatein conversation. These abilities arecritical for future reading and successin school. Children who developstrong spoken language abilities intheir early years stride far ahead oftheir peers when it comes to readinglater in childhood. Those who do nothave language strengths find itdifficult to keep pace with their peers(Snow et al., 1998).

Preschoolers learn about 2,500 newwords a year—about 7 new words everyday (Wolfe & Nevills, 2004). Thisstore of vocabulary words provideschildren with information they need toassist in decoding unknown words andcomprehending what they read(Dickinson & Tabors, 2001).

Preschool children play with thesounds and rhythms of language everytime they recite nursery rhymes andpoetry, sing songs or do fingerplays,and listen to stories. This awareness ofthe sounds of language (phonologicalawareness) helps children matchletters to sounds as they learn to readand write (Adams, 1990). Languagecomprehension, which young child-ren gain through conversations withfamilies and teachers, contributes to children’s reading success (Scar-borough, 2002; Snow, Griffin, &Burns, 2005).

Preschoolers’ experiences and theirrelated conversations help buildchildren’s brains for reading. Forexample, children who live on a farmor in a rural area will hear and par-ticipate in conversations about rural

life. Talk about farmers, barns, cows,chickens, and ducks provides childrenwith the necessary words and un-derstanding to comprehend andeventually read, delightful books suchas Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type(Cronin, 2005).

Conversations with young childrenthat include decontextualized language—language that moves beyond theimmediate and literal to express pastand future events, ideas, images, andexplanations—also promote children’sability to write stories and essays whenthey are older (Dickinson, 2001). Foryoung children, this kind of talk mayinclude narration about what went onat school, fantasy and pretend play,explanations about books or pictures,and other topics of interest.

When adults and children engagein conversation, they are creating asituation in which children can beexposed to new or rare words (Tabors,Beals, & Weizman, 2001). These rarewords are already in the adult’svocabulary. However, when thesewords are used during conversations,children begin to understand eachword’s meaning. Connecting new,more difficult words to a child’sexperience provides contextualsupport for construction of meaning.

Spoken language provides child-ren’s brains with the building blocks

What is decontextualized language?

Words that are decontextualized gobeyond the immediate and literal toexpress past and future events,ideas, images, and explanations. Forexample, reviewing the day’s activi-ties, reading fairy tales, and makingplans to plant vegetable seeds withchildren’s families all use decontex-tualized language

Spoken language providesbrains with building blocks for literacy.


for literacy. Children who acquirespeech quickly and easily are becomingmore ready to learn to read. Childrenwho hear complex and variedconversations that involve familiartopics, and who have meaningfulopportunities to use and experimentwith words and conversations, willenter school with the best preparationto proceed through the later stages ofliteracy development.

In addition to supporting languageand literacy growth, talking withchildren can positively influence otherareas of children’s development, such associal relationships, social under-standing, knowledge of emotions,emotional well-being, and cognition.

Children Learn Social andEmotional Skills

Conversations among adults andchildren provide a rich context for earlysocial and emotional development.Conversations are the means throughwhich children see that other peoplemay have a different perspective thantheir own (Harris, 2005). As adults talkwith them, children learn about otherpeople’s ideas and experiences andcompare these to their lives. Throughthis process children realize that peoplesee and experience things differently.These experiences foster empathy.

When adults talk with childrenabout emotions, it helps childrenunderstand their own and others’emotions. This understanding then

helps children have more positiverelationships with their peers (Hughes& Leekam, 2004). It also leads to agreater ability to regulate emotionsand behavior (Epstein, 2009).

In addition to learning from whatadults say in conversation, children alsolearn from how adults respond to them.If parents and teachers respondsensitively to what children express,rather than ignoring them, beingintrusive, or not understanding, theybuild a bond of trust. These kinds ofresponsive conversations lead to thedevelopment of secure attachments,which help children feel morecompetent and self-confident (Goldberg,2000). Such feelings lead to morepositive peer relationships throughout

Subjects & Predicates

Talking with young children encourages development in spoken language, early literacy, social skills, and emotional maturity. Speaking with children in increasingly complex and responsive ways does this even better.


children’s lives (Bee & Boyd, 2010; Sroufe,Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005).

Adult responsiveness to children’s in-terests and concerns in conversations,and the degree to which what adultssay connects to what children havejust said to them, contribute greatly tochildren’s social understanding (Ensor& Hughes, 2008). Conversations withchildren are also a fertile ground forhelping children learn to solve socialproblems. Through sensitive questionsand comments, adults can

• coach children to see howtheir behavior affects others,

• help children identify howothers feel,

• encourage children’s empathy,and

• demonstrate how to relatepositively with others (Epstein,2009).

Responsive and sensitive con-versations support children’s thinkingabout emotions and the social world.Talking with children also encouragesthinking, or cognitive development, ina much broader sense.

Children’s Cognitive Development Is Supported

Researchers have found a variety ofeffects of intentional talk on children’sintelligence.

• The more that families talkedwith children every day, thehigher were pre-schoolers’IQs, particularly when par-ents used rich and complexlanguage (Hart & Risley,1999).

• Families who asked manyquestions, rather than givingcommands, had preschoolerswith higher IQ scores (Hart& Risley, 1999).

• When adults asked thought-provoking questions, childrenwere encouraged to usehigher-level thinking skillssuch as inference, prediction,and interpretation (Weitz-man & Greenberg, 2002).

• When adults ask questionsand talk with children as theyplay together, adults are scaf-folding children’s learningthrough what they say to chil-dren, thus fostering cognitivedevelopment (Berk &Winsler, 1995; Vygotsky, 1962).

Vygotsky’s work also suggests thatchildren learn ways of thinking throughhearing adults’ talk. For example, asadults tell children about how to dothings, children hear what adults say. Aschildren then do the action, they repeatadults’ words, out loud at first and laterto themselves silently, talking them-selves through the action.

Children internalize adults’ words,and these words (that express adults’thoughts) become part of howchildren think. When teachers’ andparents’ words express curiosity andin-depth thinking, such as when theyask open-ended questions, childrenbegin to think in this way as well.

In summary, filling speech tochildren with thought-provokingquestions and curiosity—rather thancommands—advances children’s think-ing. Talking more with children in away that is pleasurable, responsive,and encourages curiosity does aworld of good for children’s think-ing, emotions, social development,language, and literacy development.

High-Quality Talk inEarly ChildhoodClassrooms

Preschool teachers talk withchildren about 60% to 80% of thetime that they interact (Test, 1988).In this study, Test found that childcare teachers talk to young children asmuch as parents talk to their childrenat home.

Nevertheless, classroom relationshipsare different than those at home.When teachers interact with groups ofchildren, rather than with a singlechild, they change how they talk withchildren (Schaffer & Liddell, 1984).What are some of the differences?

• While teachers talk as muchas parents, teachers direct lesslanguage specifically to indi-vidual children.

• Speech is likely to be more di-rective and prohibitive whenteachers interact with groupsof children. Only about 20%of teachers’ talk to childrenwas for something other thanbeing directive or to controlchildren’s behavior (Dickin-son & Tabors, 2001).

• Children’s language is lesswell developed and their vo-cabulary is smaller whenteachers use language that ismore controlling (McCart-ney, 1984).

• When interacting with groupsof children, teachers tend tohave less of the good-quality,one-to-one, just for thepleasure of it, kind of con-versational exchanges thatHart and Risley found makea difference in children’sdevelopment.

Purposefully engage inhigh-quality, pleasurable

conversations.


Teachers can change this by pur-posefully engaging in high-quality,pleasurable exchanges with children.Children’s language development canmake substantive progress when teachersadapt their speech to children, asdocumented by a number of importantstudies such as those cited here.

Characteristics of High-Quality Talk

The types of verbal interactionsthat teachers have with children makea difference in their development.These are some of the most criticalresearch findings to document thevalue of high-quality verbal com-munication with young children.

• Children’s language was moreadvanced depending on thequantity and quality of theteacher talk they heard (Bel-sky, et al., 2007; NICHDEarly Child Care ResearchNetwork [ECCRN], 2000).These increases were main-tained through pre-schooland later in school.

• Children’s cognitive and so-cial development were moreadvanced when teachers in-creased the amount of high-quality language (NICHDECCRN, 2000, 2006). High-quality language means thatteachers ask many thought-provoking questions, respond

to children’s vocalizations andwords, and talk frequently tochildren using a positive toneof voice.

• Children’s language develop-ment is more advanced themore teachers talk using lesscontrolling language (McCart-ney, 1984).

• Children in preschool class-rooms had better academic,language, and social skillswhen teachers engaged inhigher-quality interactionswith children, as assessed withthe Classroom AssessmentScoring System (CLASS)(Mashburn, et al., 2008). Thedevelopers of the CLASS

Photo courtesy of the authors

In conversations with adults, children learn about other people’s ideas and experiences and compare these to their own. Through thisprocess children realize that people see and experience things differently. These experiences foster empathy.


maintain that it is the qualityand nature of interactions be-tween teachers and childrenthat are most critical forpreschoolers’ developmentand learning (Pianta, La Paro,& Hamre, 2008).

• The more that teachers con-verse with children in theircare, the more considerateand sociable those childrenare (Phillips, McCartney, &Scarr, 1987).

• If teachers are more respon-sive when they engage withchildren, children are morecooperative (Clarke-Stewart,Vandell, Burchinal, O’Brien,& McCartney, 2002).

• When teachers respond tochildren using positive lan-guage, this has a beneficial ef-fect on children’s social and emotional development(NICHD ECCRN, 2006).

How can early childhood teachersuse richer, more complex, andpersonally responsive language? Howcan teachers engage in responsive andsensitive conversations? How can theyuse questions, rhymes, and languagebeyond the immediate here and nowwith young children? Conversations,questions, and dialogue to benefitchildren’s development can be infusedinto many areas, activities, and rou-tines. Here are some possibilities.

Talk During Children’sExplorations

Centers. Teachers support languagedevelopment in centers by planningfor sufficient time, space, andchallenging materials. The areasshould be well defined and amplystocked. Smaller, cozier areas forlearning centers provide opportunitiesfor intimate conversations. Childrenworking closely together in a centerare more likely to experiment withlanguage—both in structure and newvocabulary. Critically evaluate theclassroom and find ways to createconversation areas.

Blocks and Manipulatives. In thisarea, children are usually eager toshare the pleasure of what they arecreating. They use language to solveproblems, both with the process ofconstruction and when negotiatingsocial relationships. Teachers en-courage children to talk about theirplay by making comments that inviteresponses. “Tell me how you madethis structure.” Children enthus-iastically describe and label what theybuilt and how they built it.

Wise teachers will validate whatchildren say and expand on it. Whena child says, “Look at my big tower!”a teacher might respond, “Your toweris SO tall! In fact, I see that you useda stool to reach the top. Your buildingis enormous!” Use of rich vocabularyand complex sentences encourageschildren’s language development.

Teachers can scaffold children’sconversations and ask thought-provoking questions that encouragechildren to predict or think of othersolutions, such as when they assemblepuzzles or manipulatives. “What doyou think will happen if you add thatsection?” “How did you figure out

which puzzle piece fit there?”Teachers model how to have a

conversation by • being responsive to children’s

actions and words, • giving children time to re-

spond to questions, • listening closely to their re-

sponses, and • responding to children’s thoughts

and work. When children leave their struct-

ures up for an extended time, con-versation is extended even more.Children may ponder what more theycan add to the structure, includingvehicles or animals. They may ask anadult to write labels such as “bridgeover the river” or “Anna’s farm.”

Taking and displaying photographsof children with their structures ormanipulative constructions can invitefurther conversation. Children maydiscuss the engineering of how theybuilt the structure or come up witheven more elaborate ideas forassembling their next castle.

In addition to accessories such assmall vehicles, animals, and people,teachers might include unstructuredmaterials such as fabric, clothespins,shells, and feathers in the block area.These items promote richer dis-cussions that might include talkingabout textures of wood versus shells orfeathers. A teacher might ask, “Howcould you use this cloth in yourbuilding?” to get children started.

Dramatic Play. Teachers readilysupport children’s social and emo-tional development through theirconversations as children explore roles

High-quality language means thatteachers ask many thought-provok-ing questions, respond to children’svocalizations and words, and talkfrequently to children using a posi-tive tone of voice.

Scaffold children’s conversations.


and ideas, both real and make-believe.In dramatic play, much of children’sexpression and meaning is impliedthrough their movements andgestures. Teachers who listen andwatch carefully can be responsive tochildren’s implied meanings. They candescribe children’s actions to makechildren’s intentions more explicit fortheir peers.

Young children typically find it easyto come up with roles in dramatic play,but they may have a hard timecoordinating them with others’ roles.For example, as children work out theirroles in the housekeeping area, one childmay want to be the mommy and havethe other child be the daddy. However,the other child may want to besomething else, such as the family cat.

A teacher seeing this exchangecould say, “What’s going on? It lookslike you are frustrated.” The teachercould then help children devisesolutions by saying, “What could youdo?” and then, “What do you thinkabout that? Is that something youwant to do?”

If a child insists and says, “But hehas to be the daddy,” a teacher couldsay, “How else could you have adaddy?” or “Do you have ideas onhow you could find another person tobe the daddy?” Skilled teachers givethis kind of support without being

intrusive or taking over the play.Instead, they are sensitive to children’sfeelings and ideas.

Through conversations such asthese, teachers can scaffold children’sabilities to coordinate with others indramatic play. Children learn valuablesocial and emotional skills throughthese interactions and discussions.They learn to negotiate, interact, andverbalize their feelings.

Joining ongoing dramatic play canbe difficult for the entering child aswell as for those who are alreadyinvolved in play, because addinganother person changes the scenario.Teachers can guide and scaffoldchildren as they re-construct the sceneand roles. Ask questions that supportchildren’s expression of ideas andfeelings as well as facilitate theirnegotiations with each other.

As children enact scenes from theirown social world, such as mommy,daddy, baby, sister, or brother, theyoften act out and discuss events fromtheir lives. This talk about things thathave happened at home is a wonderfulexample of children’s use of decon-textualized language.

Teachers support this kind oflanguage, which contributes to earlyliteracy development, by making surechildren have a chance to express theirideas during play. Teachers followalong as children create the scenario.Occasionally, adults will makecomments and ask questions, but letchildren direct their own play. Whenchildren talk about their own ex-periences, they are laying thefoundation for later storytelling andnarrative development, which areimportant early literacy skills.

Science Explorations. To en-courage science learnings, teachersmight display an intriguing object to

encourage children to muse aboutwhat it is or how it works. Askchildren questions using words thathelp to explain their meaning. Bydoing this, teachers encourage bothlanguage and thinking.

A teacher might put out anunusual rock and ask, “What do youthink this is? Why do you think that?How would you describe its texture?What colors do you see? How do youthink rocks are made?”

After children have shared theirideas, the teacher might say, “Thesand and leaves pack down in layers tomake the rock. The sediment formslayers.” Read books about rocks andexamine a variety of different typessuch as rocks with sparkles (mica),arrowheads, and fossils. Children’squestions stimulate each other’scuriosity and scientific thinking, whilethe rich vocabulary encourageslanguage development.

Outdoor Play. The outdoors isanother area that can greatly supportchildren’s development through talk.When children play outdoors, theycommunicate with each other andtheir teachers.

They develop concepts aboutnature, for example, as they describetheir direct experiences with rain,snow, and wind. Experiences withnatural materials such as trees are greatvocabulary builders. Teachers canweave so many words into con-versations to describe sand, forexample, and what children can dowith it:

• size (tiny, huge, small)• shape (round, pointed, flat)

Teachers model how to have aconversation by

• being responsive to children’sactions and words,

• giving children time to respondto questions,

• listening closely to their re-sponses, and

• responding to children’sthoughts and work.

Ask thought-provokingquestions.


• texture (grainy, smooth,bumpy)

• temperature (hot, warm, cool) • quantity (half full, overflow-

ing, empty)• dump (piles, mountains)• pack (wet, dry, cracks)• pound (pat, press)• form (dry mounds, wet molds)

Outdoors is also a great place tosupport children’s social developmentthrough conversation. As childrenplay outdoors, they have morefreedom and room to explore in alarge area, yet sometimes it seemsthat everyone wants the same shovelor riding vehicle. Talk with childrenin these situations, help them labeltheir feelings, and guide them tocome up with their own solutions forsharing equipment.

Sometimes children want to have abit of time and space away from a largegroup. They might sit with a teacher orfriend in a shady spot. This is an idealtime to engage in one-on-one con-versation just for the pleasure of it.Such exchanges, when responsive andsensitive to children’s feelings andinterests, contribute so much tochildren’s language, cognitive, andsocial development.

Conversations DuringEveryday Routines

Arrival. When children engage inroutine greetings (“How are you thismorning, Gabriel?” “I am fine, thankyou.”), they are learning appropriatesentence structure and common uses offriendly language in social settings, as

well as how to take turns in conversation. After a greeting, most teachers make

sure they engage in a short con-versation with each child. The topic willdepend on the child. “I see you havenew sneakers.” Children often happilytell about their shoes. Teachers can alsoask questions to prompt children.“Where did you get your shoes? Whowent shopping with you? What else didyou do together?” After each question,wait about 3 seconds (longer forchildren for whom English is a secondlanguage), giving children a chance tothink and respond. This models goodconversation skills for children, too.

Teachers can also make inquiriesabout the child’s activities since theprevious school day. “I’m wondering ifyou played outside when you got homeyesterday.” “Tell me about your familypicnic on the weekend. You were soexcited about it on Friday.” In additionto being pleasurable, conversations likethis can also be decontextualized talkabout the past (last night, theweekend). This kind of talk encourageschildren to make smooth transitionsbetween home and school.

After greetings, teachers leadchildren into classroom experiences.

“Today, we have something new inthe science area. Can you figure outwhat it is?” Or, “We will eat breakfastsoon. What do you smell? What doyou think we will eat today?”

Snacks and Meals. Family-styledining promotes enriching talk.Teachers and children informallydiscuss events, in the classroom andbeyond, using new vocabulary. Whenchildren are eating apple slices, ateacher might remind children of abook they read about picking apples,or the graph they made about theirfavorite apples. Respond to children’sinterests about the parts of an apple(peel, stem, seeds) or its shape, color,and taste. Children also enjoycomparing the food at school to whatthey eat at home. “How is this tacolike what you have at home? How isit different?”

Nap. Children often are soothedby a few soft words as they are tuckedin for a nap. When they awaken, somelike to snuggle and chat for a fewminutes. Teachers can have con-versations with children about theirdreams or discuss what children planfor later activities.

Other children don’t want to talkas they wake up, but would rather justsnuggle with a teacher. Being quiet attimes like these and just cuddling is agood way to be responsive andsensitive, too. Then, when childrenare more awake and ready to talk,teachers can follow up on children’sinterests.

Departure. As children leave theclassroom at the end of the day,teachers can encourage children totalk with their families about theirday. “What will you tell Aunt Jessicathat we did today?” “What do youremember most about ouradventures?” As children leave, be sure

Let children direct their own play.

Model Good Conversation Skills

• Choose a topic that is impor-tant to the child.

• Ask a thought-provoking ques-tion or make an open-endedcomment to prompt the child’sresponse.

• Wait at least 3 seconds (longerfor children for whom Englishis a second language), to givethe child a chance to think and respond.

• Listen to the child and respondwith more conversation.


to say, “Good bye. See youtomorrow!” This shows children thatthey are cared for and can lookforward to the next day.

Interactions During Teacher-Guided Learning

Books and Stories. Interactivereading aloud is a rich source oflanguage, literacy, social, emotional,and cognitive support. By preparingthe children to listen, and talking withchildren about the story as it is being

read to them, teachers help childrenbuild important literacy skills such as prediction and comprehension.Teachers can

• give children something spe-cific to look or listen for,

• ask recall questions aboutstory details,

• have children describe the artor photographs,

• relate the story to personal ex-periences,

• ask children to predict whatmight take place next, and

• imagine what might happenbeyond the story.

For example, as a teacher reads thestory of the three little pigs, one might ask,“Who has heard the wind blow outsideyour house? What happened then?”

Use the rich vocabulary introducedin children’s literature to introducedifficult or rare words to youngchildren. Teachers can talk about whatthese new words mean as they readthe book. For example, with the storyof The Pout-Pout Fish (Diesen, 2008),

Subjects & Predicates

Teachers who talk with children during dramatic play can scaffold their ability to coordinate with others. Children learn to negoti-ate, interact, and verbalize their feelings during these discussions.


introduce pout, scowl, and mope aswords to describe a child’s behaviorwhen sad, upset, or angry. Scaffoldchildren’s construction of meaningthrough conversation about the story.

Teachers can encourage decon-textualized language, language beyondthe here and now, by making upstories with children and asking them,“Tell me what you see. What is thepicture in your mind when you hear(or tell) the story?” This encourageschildren to develop images in theirmind’s eyes.

Reading books with repeatingrhythms or rhymes, such as Dr. Seussstories, are fun ways to increasechildren’s awareness and pleasure intalk that supports verbal fluency,patterning, and phonemic awareness.Choose a variety of books to buildearly literacy skills.

Poetry, Fingerplays, and Songs.Another way to further children’slanguage development is to informallyincorporate poetry and songs intosmall or whole group activities.Sharing nursery rhymes, rhymingstories, fingerplays, and songsenhances children’s awareness ofwords that have sound similarities andrhyming patterns. Rhythm, melody,and actions support children’s verbalfluency and comprehension. Finger-plays, such as “Itsy, Bitsy Spider” or“Bee Hive,” and songs with actions(for example, “The Wheels on theBus”) can easily be incorporated intodaily routines and group times.

Talking to Resolve Conflicts

Conflicts among children areinevitable. Disputes often arise aschildren try to express and deal withemotions connected to classroom

events or experiences. Teachers can usewords to help children express theiremotions and figure out how to solvetheir conflicts verbally.

In disagreements over toys, forexample, skilled teachers help childrenverbalize their intents and wishes andlead them to a compromise. When ateacher sees two children pulling onthe same toy and screaming, approachcalmly and ask, “What is happeninghere?” Teachers may need to verbalizechildren’s feelings for them, which willgive children the words to use in thefuture. “Arianna, you look like you areupset that Betsy wants to play withthe doll too.”

Listen to all confirmations orcorrections that the children make.Children’s abilities to verify or clarifythe accuracy of an adult’s empathicstatements will grow over time,signaling both more self-awarenessand further language development.

After children express or clarifythe problem, teachers at first arelikely to need to help them think ofalternatives. “What could you do tosolve this problem?” Eventually,children will be able to use talk toresolve their own conflicts without adult intervention. Scaffoldingchildren’s discussion and problemsolving with each other, by helpingthem verbalize their feelings andideas, supports both social andemotional development.

As children play, teachers can alsotalk about more subtle emotions thatarise in children’s activities. A teachermight say, “I see that you arefrowning. Tell me what’s going on.”Or, “You have a puzzled look on yourface. What are you feeling?” If thechild has difficulty responding after afew seconds, teachers can make anempathic response, such as “Are you

sad?” or “Are you wondering…?” When teachers narrate their own

feelings about classroom events, thiscan also increase children’s under-standing of others’ perceptions. “I amfeeling anxious because it’s so loud inhere.” Or, “Evan, I am so pleased thatyou hung up your jacket all by yourself.”

The best times to solve conflicts arenot necessarily when children are inthe thick of a dispute. In addition,lead conversations about classroomproblems at other opportunities, suchas mealtimes. “I noticed that many ofyou had a hard time sharing the sandtoys outside today. What do you thinkwe could do about that?” Very oftenchildren are more able to talk withothers about conflicts or problemsand make good suggestions when theyare not personally involved with theissue at that moment.

* * *Throughout the day, wise teachers

respond to children’s talk and ideas.Have conversations for the sheerpleasure of it. Use positive, rich, andempathic language (rather thancommands or negative statements).Be curious and ask thought-provokingquestions. Give children time torespond, listen to what they say, andthen respond to their ideas.

While these suggestions may seemlike normal routines for earlychildhood classrooms, teachers areencouraged to plan to improve theirfrequency of intentional con-versations. Purposeful interactionsand talk by responsive and sensitiveteachers can truly make a difference inpromoting children’s development.

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From SACUS to SECA: A History of the Southern Early

Childhood Association from1990-2010

It is always important to chronicle thehistory of an Association and SECA has a veryrich history, full of humorous, poignant andsignificant events and stories. Dr. MillyCowles generously agreed to assist the SECAoffice staff in pulling together the history ofthe last 20 years and we’ve produced adocument that provides insights into thefunctioning of the Association and its impacton the development of early childhoodprofessionals in the South.

The history document is posted (alongwith the first SACUS history, The First FortyYears) at http://www.southernearlychildhood.org/leadership_pdf.php#histories

We hope you’ll take a moment to gothrough the history and enjoy the evolutionthat SACUS/SECA hasexperienced. We’re sureyou’ll find somethingthat you didn’t knowabout SECA!

Thanks to Dr. Milly Cowles

of Alabama

Put These Ideas Into Practice!

Note: Dimensions of Early Childhood readers are encouraged to copy this material for early childhood students as well as teachers of young children as a professional development tool.

Talking With Young Children: How Teachers Encourage Learning

Joan E. Test, Denise D. Cunningham, and Amanda C. Lee

Strategies to develop teachers’ classroom talk skillsDirectors can encourage staff to develop their talking skills with techniques such as these.

Reflect• Keep journals about classroom conversations. • Identify which conversations encouraged children’s

development.• Discuss: Why did those conversations have such a

positive effect?• Think about: What would make sense to try next?

Observe and discuss• Two teachers observe each other’s conversations

with children (or use videos).

• Note how often each teacher talks with children and what was said.

• Discuss and assess the observations. • Think of ways to add more rich and complex talk

with children.

Experiment• Ask each teacher to add one new way of talking

with children for a few days. What happened?• Suggest that teachers add more talk to a center

or a daily routine for a week. How did children’s behaviors change? Why?

Talking with children supports ALL areas of development!High-quality language means that teachers askmany thought-provoking questions, respond to children’s vo-calizations and words, and talk frequently to children using apositive tone of voice.

Talk to enrich language and literacy• Choose richer vocabulary. “I’m wondering how we could make a mural

about ocean creatures.”• Talk with children just for the fun of it. • Use pleasurable language, not just words to accomplish a task. “I see

you are experimenting at the water table!”• Use more complex, descriptive sentences. • Give hints about what words mean. “That block tower is gigantic! You

can’t even see over the top!”• Offer props to extend play. • Make read-alouds interactive. Ask thought-provoking questions. Encourage predictions. • Talk beyond the here and now. “Remember when we walked around the

neighborhood looking for signs of spring?”• Add rhythms and sound patterns. Sing with actions, use fingerplays, and act

out nursery rhymes.

Talk to nurture social and emotional development• Use friendly and positive language. “We walk quietly in the hall so the

babies can sleep.”• Respond to children’s interests and concerns. • Be sensitive. Listen to what children say. Tune in to their feelings. • Have conversations. Connect with what children talk about. • Verbalize feelings. Describe how children might be feeling. Ask them to

confirm or find better words.• Gently guide children to resolve their own disagreements. Coach

children in conflict resolution.Talk to enhance cognitive development

• Describe what is happening.• Ask thought-provoking questions. “Who remembers… What else… When might…

Where could… Why do you think…?”• Validate what children say, and expand on it. • Encourage children to think of multiple solutions. “How else could we…?”• Make predictions. “What do you think will happen if…?”

Model how to have a conversation by • being responsive to children’s actions and words, • giving children time to respond to questions, • listening closely to their responses, and • responding to children’s thoughts and work.


Documents

Talking With Young Children: How Teachers Encourage ... …southernearlychildhood.org/upload/pdf/Talking_With_Young_Children.… · speech quickly and easily are becoming ... Talking