Oral Language Development

All language is communication that consists of sending and receiving messages.  Speaking and listening are oral language skills while reading and writing are print-based language skills. Speaking and writing are productive language activities where the language user is sending a message. Listening and reading are receptive language activities where the language user has to reconstruct the message to make meaning.   

Oral language is the foundation for learning how to read and write because writing is encoded speech and reading is decoding - turning the code back into speech.  Oral language development is learned naturally through experience.  Generally speaking, the more and varied a child’s early oral language experiences, the great their level of development. 

Parents and educators can support oral language development by engage children in conversations, asking questions, and active listening.  Reading aloud and talking about books are proven to foster oral language development and later literacy skills.  

Thinking aloud is another way to support language development.  For example, when you are making some thing to eat, you can describe or "narrate" what you are doing and thinking.  "First I will get what I need from the refrigerator."  

Other ways to support oral language development include:

• Singing songs together
• Playing language and rhyming games
• Joining in dramatic play where you and your child take on imaginary roles such as diner and server at a restaurant.  
• Playing listening games such as Simon Says

In short, anything that engages your child in active listening and speaking builds their oral language skills.