Early Development It’s more than just child’s play.

Why it is important to understand the connection between physical and oral language development in the early years

By Deb Cavanagh & Sharlene Samuel-May 22nd May, 2022

This little baby has developed from in-utero to present, to use her core strength, shoulder, wrist, hand and finger muscles alongside her vision and hearing to demonstrate eye-hand coordination in a balanced body, stable enough to hold herself up in a sitting position.

Reading aloud has so many benefits! It supports vocabulary development, builds stronger connections between the written and spoken word, provides a safe way to explore emotions, promotes bonding and most of all is enjoyable. Not too long ago Trumpet posted a gorgeous video of our latest Trumpeter, Miss M, aged 10 months, reading a book. We promised an article to follow and here it is. ELF and Trumpet are passionate about early childhood development and we are here to support families and ECEC settings in this space.

Look at this little lady – so totally engaged with and entranced by the book; actively participating in the joy of language, touch, and images. The most amazing thing is that within the first 10 months she has developed into a sitting up, focussed, and talkative little being who is beginning to make sense of, and interact with, her safe and secure world. The neuroscience literature and research show that there is rapid growth in the brain from conception to age five.

Only seven weeks after conception Miss M was forming neural connections enabling early movement. At birth, her movements were largely uncontrolled and mostly reflex driven: focussing on safety and survival. To develop physically, Miss M needed movement through the centre of her body in preparation for essential core and neck strength. Her first playground was the floor with frequent opportunities to be on her back, kicking her legs, and waving and spreading her arms – allowing her limbs to freely explore her surroundings, get tactile feedback and to start to become aware of her body in space. Miss M needed ample time on her belly too. During tummy time, she started to lift her head off the ground and move it to one side or the other, strengthening neck and back muscles, orienting vision, and responding to sounds and stimuli. Pushing up on her arms assists with shoulder stability and strength, which is imperative to be able to hold the book, turn the pages and use both her hands and fingers.

It was around 4 -5 months of age that she began to reach with her hands and brought toys to her mouth to explore. After ample opportunities to refine this movement and develop more control of her actions, she began to shake items and swap toys from one hand to the other. These bilateral skills of working her hands together and then separately (when transferring) develop her ability to coordinate body movements and motor plan. Crawling develops core strength, shoulder stability, wrist, and hand strength. She uses her hands to grab, grasp and hold the book and support it with one hand while she turns the pages.

Alongside movement and balance skills, her hearing and vision is also developing. Her vision development requires her to learn how to move her eyes accurately, to use both eyes congruently and to develop focus and depth perception. In addition, she needs to process the visual information received by her brain to make sense of her world.

Oral language skills are the foundation for later literacy success and are necessary for the development of social skills and act as a protective factor of the emotional well-being of children. Reading to children from birth has a profound and positive impact on early childhood development and when we create shared reading opportunities we provide for children in terms of their sense of self and well-being across the developmental domains.

Miss M pretending to read demonstrates that she has many of the first skills required to become an avid reader. Miss M demonstrates that she has an awareness of some key pre literacy skills. She knows that the pages of the book are turned and that stories progress with the pages. Miss M has learnt from watching her mum and dad that we talk about what is happening on those pages. We can hear Miss M vocalising speech-like sounds while she is looking at the pages. This babbling is an early stage of language learning. Miss M is talking about what she is seeing and within this short amount of time we can already hear expression in her babble, prosody which is the rhythm and melody of language. The biggest take away is that Miss M understands that this book tells a story and that it is FUN to read it. Having an intrinsic motivation and desire to read is one of the first steps in learning to read.

 How can you promote physical development in those formative first years? Time with children on their back and on their tummy, where their arms and legs are unrestricted to allow exploration. Avoid sitting the baby up or propping them as this doesn’t allow movement and muscle and sensory development. Let them touch, reach and interact with toys within their area of focus. Get down children and make eye contact, watch for the baby’s response as they focus on you, track your face and kick their feet. If the baby makes sounds, respond with sounds, and give wait time so they can continue this early conversation.

So how can you promote an interest in reading and develop oral language skills in the early years? Read, read, read!! The best way to get young children excited about reading is to read to them. Choose a book that they love or are very familiar with! After you have had fun reading a book multiple times, have fun talking about the characters, the emotions they felt, the problems faced and then retell the story through multiple role plays, and by using actions to teach new words and concepts. By reading to children, we are ensuring that we are immersing them in spoken language. Sharing books in infancy has been linked to higher vocabulary in the preschool years. Research shows that encouraging toddlers and pre-schoolers to retell stories they’ve heard is an activity that benefits their language and early literacy development in many ways.

Just as environments and relationships can affect early brain development, children’s early language and physical skill development is also affected by what they experience before school in the first 1000 days of a child’s life. Shared reading in your ECEC setting is a fantastic springboard for planning and development in the oral language space to social skill development. Let us show you how because the ‘why’ around the call for action is clearly highlighted in the latest AEDC data which shows, “a small but significant increase in the percentage of children who were ‘developmentally vulnerable’. In 2021, the percentage of children developmentally vulnerable on one or more domain(s) increased from 21.7 per cent in 2018 to 22.0 per cent in 2021. The percentage of children who were developmentally vulnerable on two or more domains also increased from 11.0 per cent in 2018 to 11.4 per cent in 2021” (AEDC Report, 2021). With significant increases in vulnerability across the domains the question needs to be asked, “What does your ECEC need to improve?”. The more we talk, read and play with children in the early years, the better prepared they will be for life.

Education Linked to Families (ELF) and Trumpet Early Years Consultancy are here to provide you with quality, hands-on professional learning. We will support you in putting the theory into practice so you can be an example of excellence in the early years and in exceeding the National Quality Standard and reflect best practice in the Early Years Learning Framework, because every child deserves quality early education. A bridge needs to be built connecting theory to practice, and early childhood educators need the practical support and tools to be able to walk across with confidence and the same level of competence.

References:

Australia, C. o., 2022. Australian Early Development National Census 2021, Canberra: Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

AEDC Final Report. https://www.aedc.gov.au/resources/detail/aedc-annual-final-report-form

Blythe, S. G., 2005. The well balanced child - movement and early learning. Revised 2005 ed. Gloucestershire: Hawthorn Press.

Hanscom, A. J., 2016. Balanced and Barefoot: how unrestricted outdoor play makes for strong, confident and capable children. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.

McCain, M. a. M. J., 1999. Reversing the real brain drain: early years study : final report.. Toronto: Canadian institute for Advanced Research.

myvision.org, 2022. myvision.org. [Online] Available at: https://myvision.org/guides/infant-eye-vision-development/ [Accessed 15 may 2022]. urbanchildinstitute.org, n.d.

Babies Brain Begins Now- Conception to Age Three. [Online] Available at: http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain [Accessed 15 May 2022].

Wolf, M. &. S. C. J., 2008 . Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain.. New York, NY: HarperCollins..