I recently attended an RIE workshop here in the Philippines and I was amazed at the practicality of the suggestions given by the speaker, Deborah Carlisle-Solomon. For the un-initiated, RIE stands for Resources for Infant Educarers, and its goal is to improve the quality of infant care and education through training parents about their children and about themselves. It is all about treating children as active participants that are learning about the world and themselves rather than passive objects that are helpless and need to be cared for.

One of the things that fascinated me was a line that the speaker used, “We have to bathe the children in language.”  This thought struck me. As a Montessori educator, I was taught about how language develops in children, and its importance, but it was the first time I heard it phrased in this manner. What does it mean to “bathe them” in language?

We use language all the time. Language is necessary in order for us to be able to cooperate, communicate, and collaborate with one another. Some can argue that civilizations were born out of language, for without it, man could not have accomplished the things he has. When did we learn how to speak the language we grew up with?

There is something about babies that evoke language from adults. Whenever we see a baby, we can’t help but utter something about the baby’s appearance, our desire for a child, and to interact with them. There is something so deep within human beings that requires language that we cannot avoid talking to others. The baby gives as much to the adult as the adult gives to the child.

“I say, development, not teaching, for the mother does not teach her child language. It develops naturally, like a spontaneous creation.” (Maria Montessori, Absorbent Mind, p. 100)

We don’t teach language to the child. The child constructs language using whatever it is that they find around them in their environment. He does this automatically, from that mesmerizing call to the adult for language. We can’t help but look into a baby’s eyes and talk.

The young baby starts with drinking in the sounds even before birth, while in the womb. They hear their parents’ voices, rhythm (steps), and beats (heartbeat). Right at the very beginning, the baby is conscious of sound and of human sound. They learn language as naturally as breathing or digesting; they acquire language with no effort. For adults, it’s a huge task, it is tiring, and they never learn it as perfectly as babies do.  

The bulk of language development has to go on in the first three years where there is a huge outpouring of words, sentences, and songs. We have to pay attention to the child from 0-3 because this is the critical period that the child absorbs the language, taking it in, practicing it, and connecting his environment to himself.

“The number of words children hear directly corresponds to their verbal ability. It’s a very simple input-output relationship…[this] correlates with their vocabulary at age four and language skills at age eight. We need to start talking to children early, and quantity is important.” (Lise Eliot, NAMTA Journal p. 76-77)

Children, no matter what their age, are constantly absorbing what they are getting from their environment around them. It means that whatever we are saying, the children can use to aid in their development. We often neglect this task of talking to very young children because we think that they don’t understand it anyway. This cannot be further from the truth.

If babies need exposure to language, what do we say to them? The short answer to this is “EVERYTHING.” One of the skills they taught us at the workshop is to “tell your child what you’re going to do before you do it.” Things as simple as:

• “I’m going to pick you up.”
• “I see that you’re hungry. Let’s get you some milk.”
• “I have to go to the other room. I’ll be right back.”
• “I’m going to shut the car door. It’s going to make a loud sound.”

As the children are developing, they are beginning to understand our actions, our activities, and our culture, all through observing us using the senses. We have to remember that children cannot read our minds or our motives. (Some people, even as adults, expect others to be able to know what they are thinking.)

With this in the forefront of our mind, we need to communicate and narrate everything we are doing for and around the child. When the diaper needs to be changed, we can verbalize all the steps needed from realizing that the diaper is wet, all the way to having a clean diaper. This monologue can go somewhat like this:

“What is it? Let me check your diaper to see if it needs to be changed.”

“Oh yes, you need to be changed. Let’s go to the changing table to change you into a fresh diaper.”

<goes slowly to the changing table. You should do this slowly and focus on the child’s attention. Babies are fascinated by everything.>

“Alright, now I’m going to change your diaper.”

“We have to unfasten the straps first and remove this dirty diaper.”

“We have to wipe you clean. We make sure we get all the dirt.”

“It’s time to put on a new diaper. I’ll need you to lift your bottom so I can put this on you.” (Gently lift the baby’s bottom as you say this)”

“Let’s secure the straps. And now you’re clean! Let’s go listen to some songs.”

With one caregiving activity, the child can be exposed to so much new language, as well as the steps for a routine that he, as he gets older, can participate in. We can treat each caregiving activity with the child, feeding, bathing, playing, burping as an opportunity to use language. We have to remember that we use soft tones and speak slowly to the children as we do this so that they can fully internalize each sound that we make.

The Edison’s Day video shows how a 20-month old boy participate in the functions of the home and how his parents speak to him with aiding language development in mind.  This video can be rented online through Vimeo.  The Abba’s Orchard School shows the video during its Parent Orientation or Parent Enrichment meetings.  Watch Edison’s Day Online

We stick to the facts. Things that they are seeing.  We don’t have to explain why we are doing things because we don’t want to “flood” the children with language that may overstimulate them. We simply narrate what it is we are doing, and when the child is within earshot, we can also narrate our activities such as when we are folding laundry, cooking a meal, cleaning the house.

Dr. Patricia Kuhl, a director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, says that babies need to learn language in a sociable, meaningful way. This is because we need to use language in order to communicate and make ourselves be understood with others.

We might not think that children understand what we are saying, but they are gaining much, much more than we think.