Language development begins before birth. The infant becomes attuned to the sounds of their families’ voices when they are in the womb. After they are born, babies make sounds, gestures and expressions, and a trusted adult interprets them, providing love and care. Babies gradually learn that their sounds, gestures, and expressions have meaning, and they begin to use them more intentionally.
Babies notice everything that their trusted adult does; their brains are designed for imitation. They begin to associate the trusted adult’s sounds, gestures, and expressions with specific experiences. Soon they begin to pass sounds, gestures, or expressions back and forth with the trusted adult. The trusted adult blows a kiss, and the baby blows a kiss. The baby says, “Ba-ba-ba!” and the trusted adult says, “Ba-da-ba-da!” This is called a serve-and-return interaction.
Serve-and-return interactions, in which the baby and the trusted adult are completely focused on one another and passing language back and forth, are critical for children’s development. It is through these interactions that children learn vocabulary, sentence structure, and social skills. The ways in which people interact vary from culture to culture, and these early interactions teach children how to communicate socially in their communities.
Many children have families who speak a language other than English or speak another variation of English. For these children, it is helpful if there is at least one adult in the learning environment who speaks the same language or language variation as their families. If this is not possible, educators are encouraged to recognize that the child’s potential to become a multilingual student is a gift. They can encourage the family to nurture their child’s home language and include books and print in the learning environment that reflect that language. Children with strong foundations in their home language are more successful English-language users later in childhood.
Learning environments in early childhood should be full of children’s voices. One of the most important ways young children develop language is through dramatic play. Make-believe play gives children the opportunity to experiment with questioning, responding, negotiating, and listening. In playful interactions, children construct and rehearse storylines that reflect the stories that are important in their own lives. These stories will often transfer to paper and pencil as the child describes their narrative using scribbles, pictures, and/or words.
One of the most important ways that educators can support children’s language development is to read to them. The educator may welcome the child to sit on their lap or gather them in a small group to read and look at a wide variety of picture books together. Noticing and extending children’s engagement by stopping to discuss pictures, characters, or events can inspire a lifelong love of reading and further a child’s learning.
The way children learn to write is similar to the way they learn to talk. They make marks, and gradually those marks come to resemble objects in the environment — a face, a house, a flower. They notice the marks that the educator makes and imitate those marks, beginning to form rough letter shapes. They start to recognize that the letters can make up words, such as their name. They learn the sounds that the letters represent and begin to use the letters intentionally to spell things. Their initial spellings are phonetic; they might use just the first and the last sound in the word, such as “pk” for “park.” Over time, children learn more standard spelling patterns and use writing to communicate in more sophisticated ways.
Background Knowledge
Throughout early childhood, children develop background knowledge that will be essential to their success in school. Background knowledge refers to related knowledge about a specific topic or approach to learning that children store in their memories. Background knowledge could include information about themselves, other people, objects, and the world around them, as well as the beliefs, values, rules, and expectations in children’s cultures, environments, and languages. Children may develop background knowledge in their home language and transfer it to another language later. As they learn and grow, children build on their background knowledge.
For example, if a child developed strong background knowledge about bears, they might know the names of several kinds of bears, that bears hibernate in the winter, and that polar bears are threatened by global warming. As a result of their background knowledge about bears, they might also know the names of other animals that hibernate and some facts about climate change. In the process of learning about bears, they might have learned how to use the library and the difference between fiction and non-fiction books.
Background knowledge is essential for reading comprehension. It helps children to figure out what a story or informational text is about. For example, a child might draw on their background knowledge to comment during story time, “I know what is going to happen next! The bear is going to come out of the cave and look for grubs and berries!” In this example, the child is drawing on their background knowledge on bears, as well as on their background knowledge about how to engage in conversations about books and stories.
Background knowledge also fuels children’s engagement as independent learners in play-based learning environments. It helps children engage in language-based imaginative play with their peers. For example, if one child says, “We’re bears! Let’s hibernate,” a child with strong background knowledge will get a sheet to build a cave in which to hibernate. In this example, the child is drawing on their background knowledge about bears and their background knowledge about how to play-act with peers.
All children come to school with “funds of knowledge”— background knowledge that they have learned from their families. Children often have knowledge related to their families’ everyday practices and skills gained from employment, hobbies, traditions, languages, and/ or travel. It is important for educators to find out what children have learned from their families so that they can intentionally extend children’s learning.
Educators build on children’s funds of knowledge by linking their plans to topical knowledge and approaches to learning children have gained from their families. For example, a child of migrant workers employed in the dairy industry might know the names of the equipment in the milking parlor. An educator might respond by including informational texts about engineering in the book area or inviting them to tinker with pipes in the water table. Educators might intentionally acknowledge the importance of families’ work in the dairy industry when cooking recipes that include milk.
Educators may find effective ways of engaging families in their community in the life of the program so that they can learn about their funds of knowledge. A form that educators can use to interview families about their background knowledge is available in the appendix.
It is also important for educators to be aware of the kinds of background knowledge children will later need to engage in social studies and science learning. Intentionally connecting children’s funds of knowledge to academic language will provide them with a strong foundation for school success.
- Physical Science — Children build background knowledge about physical science when they experiment with solids and liquids, pushes and pulls, sounds and vibration. For example, an educator may discuss the transformation of a liquid batter to a solid bread when baking a snack.
- Natural Science— Children build background knowledge about natural science when they observe and care for plants and animals. Gardening with young children provides a rich array of opportunities to develop knowledge of the scientific process.
- Earth and Space — Children build background knowledge about Earth and space when they observe the movement of the sun and changes in the weather. Educators can introduce vocabulary such as “rotation” when children spin around in circles, and “revolution” when they run around in circles.
- Family and Community — Each child arrives in school with a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. Children build background knowledge about family and community when educators welcome the language and cultures of all the families in the class into the classroom.
- Geography, Humans, and the Environment — Children build background knowledge about geography, humans, and the environment when they engage in caring for their learning environment. Educators can connect the daily choices children make about materials to broader conversations about sustainability.