Teaching grammar and writing to young children
Do you need a reason to improve your grammar and writing? If you have children, or plan to soon, you have at least one great reason.
My daughter will be 3 years old in about 3 months. Though I know that genetics plays a role in her incredible language ability, I also credit her skills to my parenting style.
One thing I do is talk to her constantly, in regular language. I use prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, contractions, etc. I make it a point to tell her what things are, how they work, and I use a lot of words to explain. I also give her definitions.
My point is that my daughter uses almost perfectly correct grammar when she speaks. Sometimes she’ll say “me” instead of “I”, and of course she’s no English expert, but it’s amazing to watch her learn English everyday. If I didn’t know how to speak properly, and if I didn’t take the time to actually talk to her, she wouldn’t be able to communicate as coherently as she does.
Hand in hand with grammar is writing. I made sure to introduce and point out the alphabet to my daughter early, and we often discuss letters and words. When we’re playing with crayons, I often wrote letters for her, so it’s no surprise that she likes to make letters as best she can (she’s pretty good at writing an A, H, V, and U.)
Another excellent tool is right in front of you. I’ve allowed my daughter to watch me type, and I let her type letters too. This helped her learn not only her alphabet, but also punctuation marks and numbers. She often tells me, “Let me type my name, Mommy.” Right now she just types whatever letters strike her fancy, but she has fun pretending she’s writing words.
All of these everyday activities will help my daughter become a good writer, speaker, and reader.
So if you need to brush up on your basic rules of grammar, or if you never thought it was important to speak to babies and toddlers, give it a second thought. It really does matter.
Just this morning my daughter told me, “I hear a train. That’s strange. Hey! Train. Strange. Train. Strange!” I made sure to tell her that that’s called rhyming. I’ll let you know in a few years when she’s written her first book. 
Note: Look for more stories about my daughter’s amazing talents. I’ll be talking about her more and more, or I might just have to start another blog that’s not about writing.
Family time, Single mother, WAHM, Writing | Theda K. | March 15, 2008
You are so right, Theda. I have used all those methods with my daughter, who is now 5 and has above average language ability. She uses adjectives and adverbs as a matter of course, can describe how things work or what words mean and knows synonyms for several words. Of course, there are still errors with tenses, but we’re working on those.
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Hi Sharon! Isn’t it fun to watch them learn? They have the most interesting things to tell us when we give them the tools to do so.
Looks like we have a little genius under training. In fact, I can hardly wait for Theda Jr.’s first blog post. Or maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea. Blogs are notorious for ruining your writing habits.
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You always give me some really great ideas! I think a new blog may be in order, and I might just write it from her perspective, and I might just call her Theda Jr.!
Thanks! I can then tell everyone about her ridiculousness, and keep a diary of her life. I wish I’d started it when I was pregnant. Or even before. I’ve known my daughter for a long, long time.
I do the same thing with my son. He’s now five and has written and illustrated his first book. It was a really fun project for both of us!
What a cute little story about Kirby! He did a great job! Let me know when he writes his next one, and thanks for sharing.
I do the same thing. I let my 3 year old practice typing on the computer with notepad open. Then I ask her to tell me about what she’s written.
We practice other things online such as preschool games, but this is something that I hope really gets her interested in writing.
Great post,
Stephanie
your site is a good way to encourage
our younger generation in using the proper way to communicate, keep up the good work
english make perfect’s last blog post..learn your language
Visual stimuli can be very effective in teaching young children. I always use pictures in my english lessons with success and happy kids.
jane
Good to see your daughter is good in grammar. Most children are I guess. There are adults however who make horrible mistakes. Here is a list of them that I hate the most I included as pet peeves: Mistakes in Grammar I hate the most
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Hai,
Very good post. It is good reference for me, thanks. However, I may need extra effort since we are not English native people, thus, a more frequent teach I guess is necessary.
online teaching opportunities’s last blog post..Update on Current Openings
Per the last comment, the principles are the same across languages. Provide structure, enjoyment and recognition with on-going love and feedback and your child will thrive. Whatever the language, repetition, use and exposure are all multipliers of the retention. If you can get you children started on another language younger. It works.
Children seem to soak up grammar instinctively so what you are doing sounds really great! I know from having a Swiss mother that I picked up so much of her language as a preschooler as she would talk to me in Swiss German as well as English. I would find it harder to learn it now as an adult.
Hey, my kids watched so much telly and they pick up their grammar and sentences from watching Playhouse disney.
Some of my customers commented that my 3 year old speaks good english.