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Preschool Language Activities
for Raising Effective Communicators
Two key 'ingredients' or preschool language activities are required in excessive quantities to ensure that children become good communicators as adults.
Besides the fact that our preschoolers will one day be high schoolers or university students that have to write essays to pass exams, we are living in the information age - an era where effective communicators will be able to cash in or hold influential positions, if they are able to write good reports, scripts, advertising copy, news articles, magazine features, blogs, websites, ebooks...whatever!
Believe it or not, high school is not the time to start learning to write or express oneself well.
Good language skills start at preschool level.
Preschool Language Activities for College Success
There are two important ingredients which are both required in excessive quantities from early childhood onward that will guarantee good communicators.
Before I share those two ingredients, think about this: If you have never heard Martian in your life, there is no way that you will be able to produce a single sentence of Martian when you encounter a little green man from Mars one day! Similarly, if you have never heard the unique sounds of the San people of Africa, you won't stand a chance of even saying, "How do you do?" if you meet one of them.
The point is, that if you don't have a data base of San language in your brain, you won't be able to produce it.
According to language experts, what a child needs to express himself well, (in English or any other specific language) is a "large database in his brain of reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns." ~ Andrew Pudewa, Institute for Excellence in Writing.
Studies show that students who write well have a wide vocabulary and an intuitive knack for using words creatively and correctly.
...so what are those two ingredients for successful and effective communication, what will develop this knack?
1. Memorization
Believe it or not, the first one is MEMORIZATION - that old-fashioned method of rote learning and drill that many educators think should have died out with the Victorians! It's also an activity that young kids usually love.
Memorizing songs, rhymes or even advertising jingles gives children pleasure. To ensure that your children are not picking up poor quality language from our culture, you should deliberately teach them plenty of poems, nursery rhymes or songs. In doing so, you will be building a megastore of interesting and sophisticated language in their brains, from which they can draw when producing their own oral or written communication.
Nursery rhymes, poems and songs provide children with opportunities to develop an appreciation for rhyme and rhythm, as well as to develop auditory skills, interesting vocabulary and a sense of humor.
Research has shown that children who struggle to recognize words that rhyme, often battle with learning to read and spell - another important reason for familiarizing children with rhymes, poems and preschool songs.
How to Memorize Poems and Nursery Rhymes with Children
Pick one poem or nursery rhyme and repeat it line by line each day until your child knows it by heart, 100 % correctly. Then choose a new poem but keep practicing the old one too. Repeat them on alternate days, until you have a repertoire of 10 poems, then repeat the process with the next ten. Give your child lots of opportunities to recite her poems for an audience - grandparents, friends or any others who will appreciate and praise her efforts.
Keep building your database of poems learned by heart and soon your child will have a collection of poems she will remember for her lifetime.
Read more about the Benefits of Nursery Rhymes.
2. Reading Aloud The second ingredient for effective communication is COPIOUS amounts of READING ALOUD to your children, even and especially when they reach the age where they are able to read alone - you still need to read aloud to them then!
Reading aloud ensures that they hear language that is more advanced than the level they are able to read alone. They hear correct pronunciation, good grammatical sentence structures and language that is probably much more sophisticated in many ways, than that which is spoken in the home, classroom, on TV or on the street in the culture around them.
Like memorization, this enhances the store of quality linguistic material from which they can draw when they need to produce some stellar language!
... so recite poems and rhymes everyday and attempt to read aloud as often as possible. Perhaps we need to have story books stashed in our purses, in the car, as well as at our children's bedsides, so that we can read aloud as many times a day as possible!
Letting your children listen to audio-books also counts as reading aloud, so story CD's in the car, in the kitchen or instead of computer games and TV time will work very well too! Just choose them well - no linguistic junk food or twaddle is allowed!
More about Reading - Preschool Language Activities
ABC Fun & 1-2-3
is a preschool programme that gives you nursery rhymes to learn each week, as well as a list of recommended, quality children's stories to read aloud together as you and your children adventure through the alphabet, one letter per week.
Gentle, age-appropriate activities and worksheets are included.
All the hard work is done for you, just open up the book and start building your child's communication skills for life! Click here for more details: ABC Fun & 1-2-3
More Pages Related to Preschool Language Activities
Nursery Rhyme Lists
School Readiness
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