Reading Aloud to Young Children

Here is more evidence that parents who read aloud to preschool children are helping to enhance those children's language and literacy skills.

More Important Than Nonsense

Of course you've heard a young child talking to her- or himself while playing. Piaget called it egocentic speech and viewed it as an inability of the child to see the point of view of others. Vygotsky's "speech to self" characterization of children's self talk gave more significance to this childhood practice, however. Now Science Daily is highlighting a study that found that preschool children do better when they engage in "private talk" while completing a task. Most interestingly, children with autism also completed task well with when using "private talk."

Young Children Language Development

Here are some recent research pieces concerning language development in very young children:

Research by conducted at the University of British Columbia and Ottawa reported in the Society for Research in Child Development (cited the Science Daily Digest) reveals that infants raised in bilingual homes learn similar sounding words at a later time than infants in monolingual homes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070928092050.htm

The Science Daily Digest also cites a related research article from the University of Pennsylvania that indicates that a child’s first year is significant from the standpoint of acquiring language. The research also indicated that toddlers are learning language skills sooner than projected to the point that by 18 months toddlers understand enough of the words of their own language to identify how speakers use sounds to convey meaning. Researchers discovered that toddlers also ignore sound that don’t occupy an important place in their native language.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172817.htm