The purpose of oral language development is connection with others and understanding experiences. Babies learn language more from experience than being taught. While formal language teaching will occur, the vast majority of vocabulary is gathered indirectly through family life and experiences. A child may learn to decode a word through systematic phonics instruction, but without understanding the concept of the word which occurs through conversation development primarily in the home, the child will not be able to understand how to read or use the word properly.
Beginning readers typically have much more extensive speaking and listening vocabularies than the reading material they encounter involves. They will be focused on decoding skills at this point. By fourth grade, after their decoding skills have improved, their new challenge will be to expand their vocabulary through reading materials. They will encounter words in reading that they may not have experienced in their speaking and listening experiences, and reading and listening comprehension become more important than decoding skills. As reading fluency is improved, reading comprehension is dependent on language development.
There are three types of talking in building a child's oral language development: The first is using language to connect with others in social interactions; the next is using language to communicate literacy in reading experiences; and the third is using language to communicate thoughts. Children learn to use language for a wide range of purposes and audiences; however, all the different types of speech and language are interrelated and build upon each other.
Building a child's oral language skills will ultimately improve her reading skills as well. Oral language is the foundation of literacy. Without adequate oral language development, a child will never reach a higher level of reading comprehension. A child's home environment has the greatest impact on language development. According to the Arkansas Department of Education, children with a poorer language development experience at home eventually struggle with reading skills.
Some ways to build oral language development include talking to your children often and in-depth about things that interest your child, and making certain that you are physically close to your child when talking. Let your child see your lips, facial expressions and hear you clearly, and also maintain eye contact. Always keep the conversation going, by following up your child's statements with questions so that the conversation doesn't just end abruptly. Discuss the activities you and your child are doing while they take place. Tell stories to your child about things that have happened, or things that will happen and encourage interaction with questions such as, "What do you think happened next?" Try to use an appropriate vocabulary level for your child, not speaking down to him but not frustrating him with too many unfamiliar words or concepts either.