Supporting Children's Oral Language Development in the Preschool Classroom

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.