To insure that children are prepared for school, California’s Governor signed a bill requiring children be 5 years of age to start kindergarten. Working with teachers all over the country I hear complaints how students are not ready for school. School readiness is not simply accomplished by making sure children are 5 years old when they begin school.
A child’s readiness for school— making sure they have the skills needed to be successful learners —is fostered by language acquisition, and is not something that magically happens at five years of age.
Early childhood literacy is nurtured by vocabulary acquisition and verbal skills. Many of the skills a child needs to get ready to learn to read are first learned in conversation. Talking with young children— “What did you do at the play ground?”, “What did you eat for breakfast?”—these conversations build a child’s vocabulary. A child who enters school with a vocabulary of 22,000 words has a distinct advantage over the child who enters school with a vocabulary of 2,000 words. In addition to talking with children about everyday events, reading aloud to children and talking with them about a story is another wonderful way to build their vocabulary.
