Kindergarten: Listening Milestones

Encourage Your Kindergartener

• Use complex sentences with your kindergartner. Parents tend to use simple speech when talking with younger children, but you can use longer, more complex sentences when you talk with a kindergartner. By using complex language, you expose your child to complicated grammar and vocabulary, helping your child to understand stories he hears and later on reads himself. 

• Talk about the past, present, future, and “what if?”. Your words will demonstrate for your child the grammar necessary for talking about these different times. These thinking skills help children understand stories and information read aloud to them and will eventually help them to understand when they read independently. 

• Introduce new vocabulary words in daily conversation. A walk around the block can be an opportunity to discuss the difference between "hustle" and "dawdle." Use words with more than one meaning, such as "bear," and explain that some words have many different meanings. By using new words and talking about words, you broaden your child's vocabulary and help her to understand stories and information she hears read aloud. 

• Continue to read aloud regularly with your kindergartner. This is an age where children are able to listen to longer, more complicated stories and chapter books. Encourage your child to choose books that interest her, as that will help ensure her attention. Read a variety of genres, and make sure you continue to discuss the books you read together. Reading to children daily increases their vocabulary, knowledge of the world, and understanding of story structure. Reading aloud also strengthens your kindergartner's knowledge of what the written word is and how it works. This understanding is essential for learning to read.

Copyright 2002-2007 Public Broadcasting Service. Reprinted from www.pbsparents.org with persmission of the Public Broadcasting Service.

For other reading articles, please see http://www.pbs.org/parents/readinglanguage/