When we watch children in preschool classrooms we see many things. Some children are actively involved with others in the classroom. Some play independently. Some are very verbal and may appear to direct the play they are involved with. Others talk less, and some children will speak very little. Sometimes the speech of three to five year old children is easy to understand: it sounds almost like an adult’s speech. More often, some of the sounds aren’t quite mature yet, and the words sound different. Still, they may be easy to understand or they may be very difficult to understand.
In preschool, all children learn from the adults in the classroom, and all children learn from each other. Playing with other children is an important part of language learning and social development.
What is it that children learn from one another?
First, a child may learn to keep up his end of a conversation to make his needs, wants, and ideas known. Unlike the adult teachers in the classroom other children won’t try to help a child stay in the conversation. If an interaction goes wrong because there is a lack of interest, a misunderstanding or a conflict, a child needs to know how to repair the communication and get back on track. Classroom interaction with peers offers many opportunities for a child to learn these skills!
What else do children learn from each other? They learn to see things from another person’s point of view. They learn to negotiate, collaborate, cooperate, resolve conflicts and share. They learn to assert themselves to get a message across. All this happens through the use of language.
As play skills develop, language skills also grow. When children play in the housekeeping area of the classroom, they must learn to plan a situation, explain to other children, and cooperate to successfully create an imaginary scene. As these skills change, language changes too. Vocabulary grows, sentences become longer and more complex and language becomes intertwined with social growth, forming basic skills that will serve the child throughout a lifetime.
Some children in a We classroom are at a disadvantage in these peer interactions. A child with a developmental delay, language delay or speech delay may not have the ability to be understood when he interacts with other children. In the classroom, this child has plenty of motivation to grow and change. He doesn’t want to be left out!
What kinds of interactions with other children will your preschool child have the opportunity to experience?
We can expect a decrease in:
We can expect an increase in:
What kind of language skills do we expect to develop? We want children to learn to be more cooperative and assertive:
Teachers understand that there are things we can do to get to know children better and to encourage them to grow. We start off with:
Observing means paying close attention to children so we know what each is interested in and what each is trying to tell us.
Waiting can be hard to do! But we know when we wait for a child to initiate a conversation we are giving him the time he needs to communicate. Then we know what it is he is interested in.
Listening means paying close attention to what the child says so that we can respond appropriately. When we listen well, we give the child the message that what is said is important to us. This gives him a good reason to continue the conversation.
We know we can be good models for children when we:
Many of the children in our classrooms work with the speech-language pathologist. Sometimes, the “speech teacher” works in the classroom and at other times children will go to the speech therapy room. The classroom teacher and the speech teacher always work closely together. It’s important for the child to practice skills he or she has learned in therapy in the classroom with other children. The classroom teachers know how to help children practice their speech and language skills every day. The kids might think they are playing, but we know they are growing and changing at the same time. The classroom is the perfect place for children to bloom!
