Developing Early Child Language Nutrition

I blame autocorrect and text-slang for the lack of knowing grammar and using proper vocabulary.

Like many, I prefer the comforts of simple language, but as I grow in my femininity, I find it alluring when I hear someone with a loquacious vocabulary. Listening to them talk is like listening to an important conversation that requires exclusive access, like the types of conversations that occur in governmental meetings between diplomats and ambassadors.

However, understanding these high-level words can be daunting for someone, like me, who relies heavily on context clues and body language to comprehend a story/event. As a child raised in the United States with English as my second language, it became a strategy to observe body language to comprehend others and not ask many questions (as I did not want to be perceived as unknowledgeable). This strategy became a crutch and my vocabulary simplified as I grew up with the normalization of text-slang and autocorrect.  Now, as an adult, I have grown in my confidence and do not mind advocating for myself and asking questions, but finding the perfect words to describe a situation is something I’m still learning. Let’s just say that the dictionary and thesaurus are my best friends.

Expanding our vocabulary makes one seem more proper and credible, as well as a better storyteller and writer. Words have meanings for a reason and when used strategically, they are impactful.

I have set a goal for myself to learn new vocabulary words and use them in simple conversations. I have set this goal for the sake of my own personal development but also the development of my family. As a new mom, I am motivated to expose my children to as many words as possible in their everyday. In a TedxTalk video, I watched Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald deliver a talk about language nutrition and the great impact it has for all human learning capabilities. Essentially, she emphasizes that “language is absolutely the basis from which all human learning occurs”…. and it all starts with the simple practice of talking and interacting with your babies and toddlers as much as possible.

By talking and interacting with our babies and toddlers, we stimulate their brain to create neuron pathways that will become fundamental in their social and academic performance. The more we repeat words, the more these neuron pathways grow and strengthen; just as the opposite occurs if we do not repeat words, those neuron pathways will shrink and die. It is important that they hear words through interaction and not by “still-face” (such as television programs, videos, virtual games, etc). By constantly interacting with our children, we are exposing them to approximately over 30,000,000 more words than the families who do not constantly interact with their children.

Exposing our children to language at a young age makes a difference, as it affects them long-term, Dr. Fitzgerald mentions that, “At the end of the three years, those babies that were born to welfare parents knew 500 words, while those babies in the “professional” families knew over 1,000 words…. they looked at these children 5 years later and they could tell the gap had increased between those children. It had gone from 500 to 1000 words to the ability to pass standardized test at third grade. And why was that benchmark so important? Third grade is important in the whole part of human learning because, up to third grade you learn to read. After third grade, you read to learn. If you cannot read on level by third grade, you can’t read the text, so you can’t keep up. You may never catch up. For those children who are not reading on level by third grade, they are 4x more likely not to be able to graduate from high school”.

The environment needed to nourish our children’s brains relies on our ability, as parents, to interact with them constantly. Dedicating them the appropriate time and attention from birth makes a difference, as we prepare them for future social and academic success. After listening to Dr. Fitzgerald’s TedTalk I am highly encouraged to grow my own language nutrition more than ever before. Every day we can develop new neuron pathways and strengthen them with practice and dedication. Just as we develop our language nutrition, we help develop the language nutrition for those around us.

xx,

Cielo Cesare

( Below is video to watch Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald TedxTalk)