Making Connections

Thinking back to yesterday's article I wanted to share my thoughts on brain and language development. Dr. Gartrell talked about "making connections". I believe this is a main way that young children process the world, develop language and create a base of knowledge. 

Preschool is an incredibly important time in your child's overall development. This is a time when you (we) can set in stone good behaviors and preferences toward learning, curiosity and socializing. The brain develops by cells communicating with each other and making connections. The more that the child experiences, the more they will communicate and the more the cells will connect. When a child reaches the age of three, they have twice the number of connections within the brain than the average adult does. The way in which the brain learns something during the preschool years is different to how an adult brain would learn.

Factors Affecting Preschool Brain Development

·        The amount of quality time a parent spends with the child.

·        How much the child is read to.

·        How they are spoken to.

A few days ago a 2 year old girl was playing the sand box. She sat happily for a long time repeatedly saying "beach". Although she has very few words she has many experiences to which she is building her knowledge and language from. Instead of "correcting" her Kathy smiled and said "yes, sand at the beach". How wonderful that she had this experience to build upon. 

The more we do the more we learn! Circle time is often spent sharing "what we did this weekend". It's so wonderful to hear the children share about their adventures and experiences; "fishing", "an art gallery", "the library", "hiking", "camping", "farmers market". These are the experiences which create family bonding, memories AND language. They also provide opportunities to experience diversity and cultural awareness; a quality of acceptance that we want to nurture early. 

I Hear, I Know

I See, I Remember

I do, I understand 

Building language is really fun to watch. I often give parents the example of a cow. For a young child they may call all animals by one name. They then learn that that there are different kinds and one is a cow. Next they learn that cows say "moo". As their learning expands they learn that cows live on a farm, that there are daddy cows and mommy cows, that cows make milk and then that boy and girl animals may have different names. Further into early elementary they will learn about different breeds of cows and what foods may be made by their meat and milk. Rarely do we have a 2 or 3 year old who tells us that Jersey cows are the brown ones or that their milk has a high fat content. As you can see their knowledge needs a base to expand from. The more experiences they have as a toddler and young preschooler the more solid this foundation may become. 

The language we use also helps make these connections. We seem to all be very good at this when we "talk" to infants. They coo and we coo back and smile; our natural way of extending the conversation. As kids get older that happens less and less. A few phrases to help a preschooler make points of reference:

"Remember the other day when we ___ ?"
"This similar to ____"
"She is crying, look at her face, she is ____"

Give details, use proper names, use describing words, share feelings, categorize.... talk, talk and then talk some more! 

Follow-up activities are also fun:

Print pictures and put them into small photo albums for the child to revisit the trip or activity
Have them dictate a story or draw a picture after an outing
Review the days events at dinner or in bed
Prepare them for new events (getting hair cut, going to the Dr., grandma visiting)

As the spring and summer weather entices us to get out of the house, take the kids and explore the wonderful rich community we live in.