The Importance of the Spoken Word

The tenth target in the Ready for Kindergarten program is hearing spoken words. The target is the same whether you have a baby or a four year old: speak to your children 30 times an hour. But what is the significance of all this talk?

Doctors Betty Hart and Todd Risley wrote a book, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, about there research into what creates vocabulary growth for children. They were expecting to find parents utilizing teachable moments. What they discovered was a difference of 2400 words per hour in the number of words a child heard. Moreover, the higher the number of words the more meaningful was the conversation. That is to say the business of life with a toddler took the same number of words across the board, those parents that spoke more were talking about dreams, the past, praises and affirmations.

Also, because the business of life with a toddler of necessity includes the discipline and the "extra" talk includes the affirmations that "extra" talk can have a serious affect on your child's self-esteem. The children of parents who talked less heard they were wrong more than twice as often as they heard they were right. Keeping in mind that business talk was a constant for all the families, the children of parents who talked more heard they were right about six times as often as they heard they were wrong. That is a substantial difference in the amount of positive affirmation.

Now as a note of encouragement, the number of times conversation was initiated was similar for all the families. Those parents who talked more simple sustained the conversation longer. So you don't need to worry about starting more conversations simply keep the conversations you are having with your child going longer. Also, don't worry about trying to move past the business talk as you talk longer it happens naturally. So turn off the computer and start talking.