Get Talking!!

It has officially been 30 days into the school year and I haven't had time to blog let alone do yoga, visit the spa, take a nap, deep clean, etc. I find myself working on evenings and weekends to plan, gather resources, and simply conquer a never ending to-do list #lifeofateacher. (sigh) Anywho, I hadn't read the newspaper in quite awhile and finally took the time tonight, subbing my coffee for wine. I came across an article that got me so excited and "amped" up because I couldn't agree with it more! If you don't have time to read the full article, the gist is this...children need to hear approximately 21,000 words per day for their vocabularies to develop at an appropriate pace. But research has shown that children growing up in less affluent homes hear significantly fewer words each day than their peers in middle and high-income households. This word gap quickly adds up. By the time a child growing up in a low-income household reaches their 4th birthday, they will have heard 30 million fewer words than their peers. This results in students performing academically below level beginning as early as kindergarten. My thoughts are that even if you aren't in a low-income household, social media and modern technology encourages less face to face interaction and conversations to occur, resulting in less language building between parents and their children. Tips are included at the end of the article. My favorite...READ TO YOUR CHILD (even babies benefit).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2015/10/18/baby-talk-brain-programs/73808670/