How Does Toddlers' Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities?

Raffaele Dicataldo,Maja Roch

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010526

Abstract

The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less interest in literacy. These children’s factors, along with their engagement in literacy activities, are important components in children’s early literacy experiences and may affect their early language development. In this study, we examined associations among maternal education, home literacy environment (HLE), children’s interest and engagement in literacy activities, and language development of 44 toddlers aged between 20 and 36 months. Overall, results showed that only children’s engagement in literacy activities was related to vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, whereas maternal education, HLE, and children’s interests were not. These results suggest that taking advantage of individual children’s interests by planning activities in which children are fully engaged, may be effective strategies for promoting children’s oral language development.

Highlights

Speech and language are the most important skills that we use to communicate with others
Child interest in reading and their engagement in reading activities were not correlated with other contextual factors. These results addressed RQ1 by showing that maternal education, is related to the number of children’s books at home and to the frequency per week of shared book reading activities whereas child interest and engagement in reading are not correlated with other contextual factors
The large body of research reviewed, and results of this study provide a relatively convergent picture of the importance of children’s engagement in literacy-related experiences at home for their language development in the first years of life

Summary

Introduction

Speech and language are the most important skills that we use to communicate with others. Infants are rapid learners of language and develop these skills during the first years of life [1] Children vary in their development of speech and language; there is a natural progression or “timetable” for mastery of these skills for each language. The most intensive period of speech and language development is during the first three years of life, a period when the brain is developing and maturing rapidly [2]. These skills appear to develop best in a world that is rich in sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others [3]. Neuroconstructivists argue that development is an experience-driven process, and that

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion