Preschoolers - Communication & Language
Time to take your preschooler's vocabulary to the next level
Chapter 6.10
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on whatsapp
Incorporating Decontextualized Speech
Karan (4-years-old): My ear is paining
DAD: did you put something in your ear?
Karan: No
Dad: Okay, let us go see Dr. Aunty
Karan: Will she touch my ear?
Dad: Not touch, she will use the torch light to see what is wrong inside your ear.
Karan: And then give medicine. And then no pain?
Dad: I hope so. Let’s see what she has to say.
Let's Reflect
Beginning around the preschool years, parents’ uses of decontextualized language are associated with their child’s later vocabulary, narrative skills, and reading comprehension skills. Decontextualized language usually initiates trough talks during pretend plays and then slowly gets graduated to other forms of talk like narratives of past or future events and explanatory talk.
It is important for parents, to understand that preschoolers have the vocabulary knowledge and cognitive capacity to handle the challenges of decontextualized language
What is Decontextualized Language?
This involves talks about things that are not present in the moment. Parents can indulge in decontextualized language with their preschooler in the form of following categories:
- Explaining how things work, or why we do things.
Eg: You need to close the tap while brushing your teeth, so that you don’t waste water
- Narrating about events that happened in the past or might occur in the future.
Eg: Remember you brought a gift for little Amay. Let us go and give it to him today.
- Pretend utterances used during pretend play.
Eg: Now the policeman will come to put the thief in jail.
- Having non immediate talk during book reading.
Eg: Puddle’s mother kept a feather in his bag on the first day of school. Can you guess why? Okay, let us read the next page to find out.
In what ways are Decontextualized Language challenging for a preschooler?
Talking about the ‘here and now’ does not challenge 3-5-year olds enough. The bar has to be raised to get them to use a more descriptive language.
Decontextualized Language requires:
- A more abstract level of analysis by the child as it is conveyed mere through words and has no current physical context.
- Involves use of elaborated noun phrases, adverbs, connectives, and mental state verbs further ups the challenge quotient.
- Explaining cause-and-effect relations requires an understanding of sequencing and causality.
Why is it important to engage with preschoolers in Decontextualized Language?
Research suggests that there is a direct relation between parents’ uses of decontextualized language with 3- to 5-year-old children and the children’s oral language abilities (e.g., vocabulary, narrative, story comprehension).
These abilities are extremely important:
- precursor to literacy development
- for preparation for reading where gestures, facial expressions, physical space, and objects are described as per the context.
Here is an example of the important connection between speaking and reading:
If someone says, “Take your seat,” the listener quickly understands that he is being told to sit down. But if the same sentence appears in writing, the reader would have to figure out whether it means sit in a chair or pick up a chair.
There are simple ways to engage children in decontextualized language conversations.
Some recommendations are as follows:
- Engage in pretend play with child
- Answer children’s why questions.
- Strike conversations about things you and your child did together in the past “Remember when we went to the park last Sunday?” and prompt the child to elaborate on the conversation “What is the name of the new friend you made at the park?
- Start conversations about future events and ask your child to make predictions “Your sister is finishing her homework. What would you like to play with her when she is done?”
- Read a book with the child and draw connections to your child’s life: “The boy in the story is going to a beach holiday with his family, just like we all went. What do you remember about your holiday?”
- Read a book with your child and ask him/her to make predictions “What do you think the pirate of the ship will do now?
- Encourage your child to tell a story. Storytelling relies on decontextualized language.
So, get going and chat up with your little buddy at every opportunity you get. Narrations during meal times, explanation in between daily routines, oral story-telling during bed times, make time for pretend plays and book readings. Most importantly enjoy, cherish, and keep going!
SHARE
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Last Chapter
Next chapter