Talking With Young Children: How Teachers Encourage Learning

Why do teachers talk with children? There are many excellent 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 talking with young children. • When adults purposefully talk more with children, children develop larger vocabularies (Hart & Risley, 1999; Hoff & Naigles, 2002). • When children have larger vocabularies, they become better readers in middle childhood (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). • When adults talk to children with longer, more complex words and sentences, children have higher IQ scores (Hart & Risley, 1999). • When adults talk with children in a responsive and sensitive way, they encourage children’s social and emotional development (Ensor & Hughes, 2008; Harris, 2005). In general, talking with young children encourages development in many areas: spoken language, early literacy, cognitive development, social skills, and emotional maturity. Speaking with children in increasingly complex and responsive ways does this even better. This article explores research findings about the effects of adult’s language and conversations on children’s development. It also discusses ways that teachers can include more intentional talk in their daily routines and classroom activities to support children’s learning.