Building Strong Oral Language Foundations

Oral language is the basis of reading, writing and social interactions. The quality and quantity of early oral language interactions sets children up for literacy success at school and beyond! The following strategies can help to strengthen this skill with your child at home.

Strategies:

Follow your child’s lead in conversations and take turns speaking.
Give your child sufficient time to compose and finish their messages.
Listen carefully to the meaning of their message.
Respond with animated expressions, and specific, meaningful comments that are related to the message.
Make eye contact, pause and wait expectantly for your child to initiate questions and comments.

Try It Out!

Use pictures to spark conversations with your child.

Identify and talk about details in a picture.
Search and find picturesthat highlight a particular feature or characteristic (e.g., feelings, colours, animals, body parts)

Here are more oral language activities that you can share with your child!

Phonological Awareness

There are also specific oral language skills that underlie future reading and writing success. Phonological awareness is the ability to distinguish words, syllables and individual sounds in words by ear, with no print involved. This skill can be developed on-the-go in many playful, interactive ways.

For example:

Jump once for each word in the sentence:

The dog is sitting (4 jumps)
* * * *

Clap the syllables in the word: sunshine → sun - shine

What’s The Word?

rain…[pause] bow → rainbow

ffff…[pause] ish → fish

mmmm…[pause] aaa…[pause] p → map

What Do You Hear?

What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word? (e.g., pig→/p/)

What sound do you hear at the end of the word? (e.g., sad→/d/)
What sound do you hear in the middle of the word? (e.g., log →“aw”)
Break apart the word, e.g., tub. (/t/ [pause] /u/ [pause] /b/)

Check out these games to further support phonemic awareness!

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board
1994 Fisher Drive
Peterborough, ON K9J 6X6

Phone: 705-742-9773
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Fax: 705-742-7801
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