Enjoying the Dance of Communication with Our Children: Supporting Early Literacy

By Laura Lawson Tucker

Imagine this cozy scene between a newborn baby and her parent:

A mother holds her baby close to her own body. Her baby is bundled into a warm blanket. The baby and the parent look intently into each other’s eyes. The baby looks away and the mother smiles. The baby returns her gaze to the mother. And then, the mother rocks her baby gently while singing: “Hush ‘n bye, don’t you cry, Oh, you pretty little baby, When you wake you’ll have sweet cake, and all the pretty little ponies, A brown and a gray, and a black and a bay, and all the pretty little ponies.”

These warm and loving moments shared between this mother and her infant include the primary essentials needed for a child to grow into a confident and competent communicator: a loving and trusted caregiver, a feeling of safety, and feedback to the child that he is recognized as a significant person in the caregiver’s eyes.

“Rocking songs can be powerful projections of a world that we wish to bring to our children. The words and the melodies wriggle through our rational armor and can make us stop for a moment and fully embrace and enjoy being with our babies. The songs carry with them tenderness and love, using images of moons, nests and other comforting aspects of nature.” (Ann Scott, The Laughing Baby)

Literacy is all about communication. People of all ages have a variety of ways that they communicate with one another: cries, sounds, words, motions, sign language, body language, writing, painting, dancing, singing, reading, or writing. As humans we must connect with one another, and we must express our individuality! All people of all abilities have this need and requirement.

Our job as significant adults in children’s lives is first and foremost to invite children to engage in meaningful conversation, to support their efforts to be “heard,” and to enjoy sharing these moments with our children. Our enjoyment and delight in our children helps to cement our attachments to them. Further, our strong and responsive relationship with our children supports their growing skills as a speaker, reader, and writer.

Let’s return to our mother and infant. Stanley Greenspan, a child psychiatrist, describes the scene we imagined between the mother and infant as “circles of communication.” That is, the baby looked at the mother, the mother held the baby’s gaze, the baby looked away, the mother smiled at the baby, the baby looked back at the mother’s eyes, and the mother began to rock her baby. According to Greenspan, the mother responded to the baby and gave her baby important feedback about her efforts to connect and communicate with her. Together, they shared a dance of communication.

The foundation for the infant’s growing early literacy skills begins with the developing attachment he forms with his primary caregiver. The baby who experiences responsive care learns that his cries, coos, and efforts to communicate matter. That is, the growing child’s desire to express himself, his needs, desires, and individuality are cradled within the context of caring and responsive relationships.

In addition to caring and responsive relationships, another essential for supporting early literacy skills is a rich language environment. Following are some of my favorite quotes from Jim Trelease in his The Read Aloud Handbook:

“When we take the time to read aloud and converse with our children, they learn to value language – as well as our company.”

“Children who are very fluent in oral language tend to have the easiest time learning to read.”

“Songs, finger plays, and nursery rhymes are especially good for introducing children to the patterns and rhythms of language.”

“Poetry paints verbal pictures for children, tells them stories, and expresses emotions that they are feeling.”

A rich language environment offers the child ample opportunities to have conversations; to be read to; to hold and peruse books; to see print and numbers in a variety of forms; to have access to writing, drawing, and painting tools; and to hear songs, poetry, and chants with wonderful rhythm and rhyme.

Research has shown that children need to hear the rhythm and rhyme of language in order to build their phonological awareness, or familiarity with the sounds of language. Phonological awareness helps a child to become a competent user of spoken, read, and written language. That is, the young child that has been surrounded by not only caring adults, but also, adults who invite children into the wonderful and delightful world of words becomes more equipped to become a successful reader at an older age.

Picture the father of the preschooler singing to his child while sharing a picture book:

“Hickory, Dickory, Dock. The mouse went up the clock. The clock struck one, the mouse ran down, Hickory, Dickory Dock.” The preschooler chimes in with new words: “Hickory, Dickory, Dock, the mouse ran up the sock!”

Both parent and preschooler enjoy the new rhyme with gales of laughter. The preschooler is showing us a command of language that will serve him well as he enters the world of becoming a reader in a few years. But possibly, even more importantly, the preschooler and his father are delighting in each other’s pleasure of sharing the fun of language together.”

The playing and interaction in a nursery rhyme game gives the baby (child) a true sense of her own ability and power to integrate the world around her.” (Scott, The Laughing Baby) The growing child’s need for a rich language environment continues throughout childhood. Jim Trelease argues that even when a child becomes a reader, it is very important to continue reading aloud to him. Not only is there the shared pleasure of parent and child enjoying a book together, but also, as parents enter the landscape of their growing children’s changing needs, continuing the tradition of reading aloud together helps to maintain a strong relationship.

Another way parents can support the literacy skills of children is during family dinners. A recent report on National Public Radio, “The Family Dinner Reconstructed” highlighted the role of family dinners for enriching a child’s language skills. The following is from the transcript of a report that aired on February 7, 2008. NPR’s Alix Spiegel interviews Professor Dickinson of Vanderbilt University:

Prof. Dickinson: What we found was that our data on the quality of conversations in mealtimes was a much stronger predictor of how later development would go for children’s language and literacy development.

Spiegel: So the moral seemed to be: Eat dinner, read early. But as Dickinson will tell you, a deeper look at the study might suggest a slightly different conclusion. Turned out the content of dinner was important. That is, the kids who did well didn’t just eat dinner with families. They ate dinner with families that maintained complex conversation, rich with explanation, storytelling and more.

Prof. Dickinson: When a new word was used –like, suppose reptile – and the parent who would stop and say, oh, you know, like a snake, or say something that would give the child a little definition for what that word meant, those kinds of interactions were really powerful.

During a family’s busy day, sitting down together for dinner offers many benefits. Parents and children reconnect. And, children have the opportunity to hear new words, say new words, and practice their developing skills as competent communicators with the people they care about most.

All children, with their diversity of skills, styles of communication, and variety of needs are asking us to slow down, listen to what they are saying, be playful, and join them in the dance of childhood.

Laura Lawson Tucker, M.Ed, directed a family child care program for twenty-one years in Guilford, Vermont. Now she is directing a theatre program for children, youth, and adults with disabilities, Theatre Adventure Program, at the New England Youth Theatre (www.neyt.org) in Brattleboro, Vermont. Laura can be reached at laura@lauralt.net.