How having conversations with children builds their language — and strengthens family connections

Intentionally integrating vocabulary into conversations from topics children are curious about helps grow children’s language skills. (Shutterstock) by Kimberly Hillier, University of Windsor Parents and caregivers of school-aged children are all too familiar with the after-school conversation that sounds a little something like: “How was school?” “Fine.” “What did you learn?” “Nothing.” Conversations between children of all ages and attentive, caring adults offer strong benefits in all domains of children’s well-being. When these conversations are purposeful and strategic, they can even strengthen skills that contribute to stronger literacy and language development. More than information exchange When we engage in quality conversations with children, we are doing more than finding out how their day was at school. Talking with children teaches them about their world, enhances their vocabulary, strengthens trust and relationships and models formal language structures — how an arrangement and order of words in the context of specific sentences yields meaning. Quality conversations have multiple benefits. (Shutterstock) The power of conversations between children and adults even has the potential to affect connectivity in select regions of the brain. In a recent study in the Journal of Neuroscience, conversational “turns” — where there is a back-and-forth conversational exchange between children...