THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LANGUAGE
The best foundation you can set for your child
“Baby!,” two year old Lexie exclaims as her baby doll falls out of its carrier and to the ground.
Dr. Katherine Mahosky, Nihiyazhi Ba’iit’ih Early Literacy and Language Trainer, sees this as the perfect opportunity to show Lexie’s parents, Taryn and Curtis, how they can encourage more language. Katherine turns to Lexie and says, “Oops baby fell out.” By adding more words to Lexie’s response, Katherine is helping to expand her vocabulary.
Taryn and Curtis attended the training to learn how they could further their child’s language development. They came in worried about Lexie’s speech but left with confidence in being able to build her language skills. From now on, they will work to encourage Lexie’s language by talking more with her and taking advantage of every opportunity to read to her.
This is important because by the time young children reach age 3, those in highly communicative families will have a vocabulary of 1,100 words, while those in less communicative families will have a vocabulary of less than half of that (500 words).
There is no better time to teach young children and no one better to do it than parents. From birth to age 3 children grow and learn at the most intense rate. Katherine agrees, “70 percent of what we know about language happens before we get to school and parents are the absolute most important teachers of language.”
The Nihiyazhi Ba’iit’ih (For Our Children) Home Visiting Program, funded by First Things First, hosts monthly Early Literacy and Language Family Trainings. Home Visitors, from various Navajo Nation communities in Arizona, provide family support services that focus on child health and development, positive parenting and early education. Home visits and family trainings are designed to give parents the tools they need to help their children get ready for kindergarten. The job of helping children succeed in school starts the day they’re born.
To learn more about Nihiyazhi Ba’iit’ih, please call NAU Institute for Human Development at 928.523.1695 or visit http://nau.edu/SBS/IHD/Programs/Nihiyazhi-Ba’iit’ih/
March 2013