Strategies teachers use throughout the day to develop communication and language skills in children.
Strategies that promote communication and language emphasize the importance of developing language skills across all activities throughout the day. This approach includes eight strategies for promoting communication and language such as Commenting and Labeling and Imitating and Expanding. More details on these practices are included in the table below.
What is it?
Imitating is repeating or signing a child’s vocalizations or words or signs back to the child.
Expanding is adding new information.
Why it is important to reading success?
Imitating a child’s vocalizations or words shows the child that he or she was heard and understood. Children are more likely to communicate in the future when parents or care providers are responsive to their communication. This helps with Expressive Language on the Reading Success Pathway.
Expanding on what a child says can be an effective way to teach new information while providing more opportunities to hear language. This helps with Language Comprehension and Vocabulary on the Reading Success Pathway.
What does it mean?
Taking or signing about activities or objects in which the child has shown interest and or is involved.
Why it is important to reading success?
When you comment and label, you give children opportunities to hear how we talk or see how we sign about our surroundings and our actions, and you teach the correct labels for the actions and objects a child sees or plays with. This helps with Language Comprehension and Vocabulary on the Reading Success Pathway.
