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Supporting Children’s Oral Language Development in the Preschool Classroom

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Abstract

Supporting children’s oral language development during the preschool years is critical for later reading success. Research shows that preschool teachers may be missing opportunities to engage children in the kinds of conversations that foster the development of rich oral language skills. Teachers hoping to support these skills can provide children with purposeful conversations that include sophisticated vocabulary, support children’s interests, use open-ended questions, and employ cognitively challenging topics. In a typical preschool classroom, children spend a large portion of the day working in centers and eating meals. These non-teacher directed activities provide teachers with the opportunity to engage children in high quality, multi-turn conversational interactions. This article provides strategies and examples for preschool teachers to better support the oral language development of preschool children during these non-teacher directed settings.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Jennifer Whorrall & Sonia Q. Cabell

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  1. Jennifer Whorrall
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  2. Sonia Q. Cabell
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Correspondence to Jennifer Whorrall.

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Whorrall, J., Cabell, S.Q. Supporting Children’s Oral Language Development in the Preschool Classroom. Early Childhood Educ J 44, 335–341 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0719-0

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