|
 “Certain groups of populations at 24 months are more likely to show
lower levels of vocabulary, and helping those kids who may be at
risk is important,” said lead author Paul L. Morgan of The
Pennsylvania State University in University Park.
“Having a smaller vocabulary even at this young age is predictive of
lower kindergarten readiness,” Morgan told Reuters Health by phone.
The researchers studied almost 9,000 children, asking parents how
many of a list of 50 common words the children used when
communicating at age two.
They found that those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (based
on their parents’ occupation, level of education and income), female
children, and those who had high-quality parenting had a wider range
of oral vocabulary.
Children born with low birth weight and those with a mother with
health problems had smaller vocabularies at age two.
Three years later, kindergarten teachers rated the children's
behavioral self-regulation and frequency of acting out or anxious
behavior, and the children were tested on basic reading and math
skills.
At kindergarten entry, those who had bigger vocabularies at an early
age had higher reading and mathematics achievement and fewer problem
behaviors like being disruptive, having temper tantrums or being
physically aggressive, the authors reported in Child Development.
Even though the effect was small, it did seem to persist over years
of follow-up, which is important, according to Claire Vallotton of
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.
Vallotton was not part of the new study.
“Vocabulary, unlike many other things like occupation, income,
socioeconomic status or birthweight, is highly (modifiable),” Morgan
said.
Parents have the most influence on a child’s language acquisition
from birth, and changing how parents communicate with their children
can increase their oral vocabulary, he said.
[to top of second column] |
Frequent storybook reading and capitalizing on informal
opportunities to have conversations are both important, Morgan said.
Though this study stopped at kindergarten age, others have linked
kindergarten readiness to later achievement, including the odds of
getting a college education, having a 401k and owning your own home,
he said.
“From a policy standpoint our research is supportive of calls to
provide high quality early experiences for children,” Morgan said.
Quality, as well as quantity, is important for early childhood
language development, Vallotton told Reuters Health by phone.
Watch what a young child is looking at, and narrate it for them,
even starting in infancy, she suggested. Reading storybooks is a
good opportunity for this kind of “parallel talk.”
“It’s only when you’re talking about the things that the child is
looking at that they learn the words,” she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1NrRRxL Child Development, online August 18,
2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
