"You're using the green play dough to make shapes!" The power of self and parallel talk with children

Young children have many huge achievements in their first few years of life, and one of the biggest is moving from only being able to express themselves through crying, to using words, and to eventually be able to use full sentences to ask questions and to talk about the things they see in the world, their experiences, their thoughts and their ideas. 

We marvel everyday at the ever expanding language that our toddlers use, and we intentionally engage in activities that support that expanding language.  One of the ways we do that is to engage in "self talk," and another related way is called, "parallel talk." 

Self talk is when we, as adults, describe what we're doing as we're doing it.  "I'm using the play dough to make a long snake!  My hand is flat as I roll, roll, roll the play dough."

Parallel talk is when an adult describes a child's actions.  "You are pounding on the play dough with the hammer. You're smooshing it flat!"

How do self and parallel talk help children learn language?  Some young toddlers have not yet made the connection between the words we say and the actions, thoughts and processes that they describe.  This kind of intentional talk helps young children make that connection.  Additionally, adults can add vocabulary words during self and parallel talk that children don't know yet.  If children are playing with the musical instruments and we describe their play for them ("You are shaking that maraca very hard! The sound is loud!") children learn new words (maraca) and new concepts (loud vs. quiet.) 

As children get older and start to use words on their own, we can also use parallel talk to repeat and extend their own talk. When a child says picks up a bucket in the sandbox and says, "bucket," we can say, "I see you have the green bucket."  This extension of the child's single word utterance gives them new information (the bucket is green), but it also models a full sentence for the child.  Repetition and extension can also be used to softly model proper grammar for the child.  When a two-year-old runs on the playground and loudly exclaims, "I winned," we don't need to correct them, but we can model proper usage by exclaiming, "You won!  I see that you won!"  Eventually, the child will learn the proper past tense of tricky words.

In preschool, children already have large vocabularies, and we can use these techniques to further expand them.  When a child builds a tall block tower and tells us about it-- "I built a tall tower!" we can expand on that by stating, "Your tower *is* tall!  It's gargantuan!"

The bigger a child's vocabulary is when they get to elementary school, the easier it will be for them to learn to read, so self and parallel talk, as well as repetition and expansion of their language, are vital.

You can give these techniques a try at home as well! Let us know how it goes!

Infants as scientists

 While visiting the infant room recently, I had the opportunity to watch as an older infant explored the water as it came out of the sink faucet.  He touched the metal of the faucet itself; he attempted to grab the stream of water.  He allowed the water to run over his hands and his arms while he observed carefully.

For our youngest children, one of their biggest jobs is to understand how the world works on a basic, physical level.  The metal faucet has certain properties-- it is hard, it is cold.  Touching it doesn't make it change shape. The water stream, on the other hand, has a different set of properties.  It is cold (sometimes!), but it isn't hard.  It changes shape when I put my hand under it.  I can't grab hold of it like I can with my toy ball or the metal faucet.  When I put my hand on it, water sprays on me and I experience the feeling of being wet. 

This exploration is key to children's cognitive development.  In their minds, they are fitting the world like puzzle pieces into what they already know, and when a puzzle piece doesn't "fit" with what they already know, they create a new concept in their minds, plus all of the neural connections that go with it.  Child development theorist Jean Piaget called these dual concepts "accommodation" and "assimilation."  In these photographs, the infant may already have a concept, or "scheme," as Piaget called it, for water.  But perhaps he hasn't had as much opportunity to explore water coming out of a faucet.  Through exploration, he may determine that this is indeed the same water he's familiar with from the bathtub, and just "assimilate" these new properties of water into his already created concept of what it is (a thing to drink, a thing to bathe in.)  If he didn't already have this concept, he would have to change his view of the world (accommodation) to fit this puzzle piece into his world.

How can you extend this learning at home?  Observe your child as he observes the world around him.  What catches his interest?  Is she really just waving her hand in the air, or is she raptly watching as the sunlight coming through the window dances on her hand while she feels its warmth on her face?  Is he stopping on your walk because he doesn't want to walk anymore, or is he working hard to understand how the grass feels on his ankles? Children who are allowed to explore their world naturally build neural connections in the brain.  The only thing you have to do is let them!