July means summer and holidays and holidays are an ideal time for some kindergarten readiness learning and fun. Helping your child develop kindergarten readiness can happen anytime. These early childhood years are peak sensitivity for all kinds of brain connections. Early development from 0 to 6 years is crucial for later learning.
No matter what the age of your child or the unique strengths and weaknesses you can give your child a rock-solid foundation for later learning by talking. Much learning happens in the context of language; the brain needs to hear lots of language to learn. This is something that can easily fit into regular and vacation days. Plus, it doesn’t take up any room in the car!
A study counted the number of words that children heard before they started school. Turns out it adds up to millions of words, at least 10-15 million! But for children in families that talked and chatted, with conversations like: “Oh, look at that big truck. That’s a moving truck. A family put all their chairs and tables and beds in the truck to take to a new place,” or “Look at that big puddle on the driveway. It rained so hard in the night I thought maybe we’d wake up this morning and see puddles made of rocks,” talking was much more. All this added up, over just 4 years, to a staggering 40 million words. Now that’s a rock solid foundation of language.
As your family works and plays this month, talk about where you are going, what you are doing, the things your child sees and hears, etc. Sing songs, tell stories, just use lots of language. Each word is a rock. Can you build a mountain of word learning for your child?