ELSA O’BRIEN LÓPEZ

As much as cartoons might help children who already know how to speak acquire new words, watching a show should never replace real interaction or exposure to real-life situations. In fact, research shows that person-to-person interaction is key for the early development of a child’s language.

Systematically exposing children to screens to prevent them from getting bored during a social situation or on a day-to-day situation like going to the supermarket, will take away from them an extremely valuable learning opportunity. Research has shown that children’s early language skills are predictors of their outcomes in kindergarten and elementary school. Avoiding this is as straightforward as responding to a child’s demand for interaction in the very early stages of their life, since they start trying to meet the caregiver’s gaze or babble looking for an answer. Later on, a lot of opportunities for interaction will also present themselves in everyday life.

A child’s brain develops faster during early childhood than at any other time in life. It can create up to one million connections every second. But for this, children need their carers’ help. Talking and interaction at home is key to help create all these connections and develop a child’s language skills. It will also help children to acquire more advanced literacy skills once they start school. 

Taking part in constant interactions with adults and participating in frequent activities involving oral and written discourse such as storytelling will favour a child’s future school performance. Reversely, the “Matthew effect” proves that children who are lagging behind their peers in their language development are likely to fall further behind as they move up in the educational system. More and more institutions like Proyecto Mateo from Alcalá University in Spain, and the non-profit organisation Lena offer practical advice for parents and early years practitioners on how to successfully interact with babies, toddlers and young children.

However, as much as parents might want to help develop their children’s language skills, they might find it difficult to make time for it or to find the right moment as they see chances go by. It might also be common for parents to resort to sophisticated games and toys disregarding simpler and everyday opportunities for language development.

The following are just some of the many useful routines or times of the day that we can exploit to maximise exposure to new language or repetition of what our child already knows:

Reading. Establishing a bedtime story routine will help parents book a time in the day in which children are relaxed and possibly readier to sit and listen to a story. There are some things that parents must consider to make this time engaging and something the children are looking forward to, for instance, asking children to pick the story themselves and pitching the reading to their age. This means that if the book they’ve chosen is aimed at older children, the reader can just talk about whatever is on the page that’s relevant to the child at that age. I.e.: ‘What are they having for breakfast’, ‘You have porridge as well, don’t you?’, ‘Look, it’s all gone!’.

Establishing a reading routine might prove difficult for some families as it can mean bringing bedtime forward and hence everything else before that (supper, bathtime, sports practice, etc.). A way around this can be doing it at the weekend, at naptime for toddlers, or trying to introduce the routine during the holiday period.

Symbolic play throughout the day. Playing during childhood is key for learning. Through play, children reenact real-life situations, practice and repeat saying things and try to get a better understanding of an otherwise still messy adult world. Taking advantage of symbolic play (role model play, fictitious everyday situations, etc) is a great way of feeding new language into our child’s repertoire and repeating it in meaningful and memorable life-like situations. 

When time is tight, parents can take advantage of child-initiated play at different times of the day: during breakfast, while we’re brushing their teeth, on the way to or back from school.

Reminiscing. Remembering anecdotes together and re-telling them will also help our children remember important new words they learned in a given situation in the past and will strengthen their memory. A good excuse to do this is linking anecdotes to a similar current situation.

Listening to stories and music. At around the age of three, a lot of children will be able to understand and enjoy stories without images. These can be found on online platforms such as Spotify. To make sure they can understand and engage with the story they need to be simple enough and clearly told. It also helps when  the child already knows the story.

Listening to simple and repetitive (but catchy) songs is also a great way to acquire new vocabulary and become familiar with pronunciation and intonation if the songs are in a language other than the child’s mother tongue. Very instrumental songs are not the best ones to start with if the purpose is for the children to pick up new words and expressions.

Cartoons. The best way of developing a language is through interaction with another person. But, if children are to spend some time every week in front of a screen anyway, certain cartoons will be better for developing linguistic skills and enriching their vocabulary. For obvious reasons, cartoons with a lot of background music and noise won’t let children focus on what’s being said. The same will happen if action takes place too quickly. Children will be entertained due to the vast array of colours and shapes but might not get a full understanding of the plot or dialogues. 

As much as cartoons might help children who already know how to speak to acquire new words, watching a show should never replace real interaction or exposure to real-life situations. Children can learn a lot about the world from going places with their caregivers, going grocery shopping and running errands. All of these are precious opportunities to introduce new words and practice old structures.