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Chapter 12. Verbal Environment

Without doubt the greatest single external influence on the average child's intelligence is the verbal environment in which he is raised. Since intelligence tests in general, and group tests in particular, concentrate so much on measuring verbal ability, the child whose experience and background has provided him with a good verbal development will have a tremendous advantage. The foundation for such development is created by the child's parents and the verbal environment they provide in the home.

It should not be surprising that several studies1 have shown a relationship between a child's I Q and the educational level achieved by his parents. The relationship probably is the result of many factors, one of the most important of which is the fact that education tends to develop verbal skills. Therefore, the more education parents have, the higher the level of their verbal abilities tends to be. And the relationship in turn strongly affects the type of verbal environment they create for their children.

Few parents, whatever their educational background, consciously use their own verbal abilities to create the best possible verbal environment for the children. And yet there is no reason why they should not be as deliberate about their speech as they are in matters of health, discipline, and social development.

The fundamental structure of the child's verbal environment rests upon his verbal communication with his parents. There are many other sources of verbal stimulation and development of each child: school, mass media, other adults and children. But parents remain a prime source and as such have a responsibility to develop and use their verbal skills. Imparting verbal skills to children should not be an incidental by-product of living in the same house.

How can parents consciously and deliberately use their verbal skills to help their children develop similar skills?

First, by talking to their children, even when they are infants and cannot yet talk themselves; this is how they will learn. Infants do communicate by crying and babbling, by understanding familiar sounds and expressions; by identifying sounds with objects and activities, and by imitating these sounds themselves.

Normally, children will show a readiness to begin speaking between the ages of nine months and two years. Parents can help by encouraging the infant to babble and by talking to the infant simply and with consistent intonations and gestures. The child's first words, commonly mama, dada, bye bye, no-no, should be taught and used in context and not just idle exercises.

As children begin to acquire new words parents should use every opportunity to teach new words. These should be simple-one or two syllables at most. Preferably, these should be taught in context, that is, when the child needs them. When the child reaches for his water, picks up a spoon, points to a dog and cannot label them verbally, the parent is faced with the ideal moment for teaching these words.

Once the child begins combining words he will use his own system of grammar. It is best not to correct the child's grammar. Rather, let him learn from the correct speech of his parents. This is true for any child of any age. As the principal models for their children's personalities, parents are constantly "teaching." This indirect method is perhaps the most effective of all. In speech, as in other phases of life, it places the burden on the parents to be certain that they are presenting to their children the best possible models.

Once children begin to talk, parents must talk with them-that is, genuinely communicate. In order to do this, parents must first make themselves available. That means finding time, making time, to talk with children. It also means listening. Listening is not the same as simply hearing; it involves attention and interest and patience. Since children often speak slowly and with much hesitation, parents should learn to be patient and to avoid interrupting them. Parents do not help the child when they finish his sentence for him, supply the word he is hesitating over, or interpret his gestures and thus eliminate the need for his verbalizing a particular word or phrase.

How can an adult be sincerely interested in the many ordinary and trivial things which excite the interest of children? Most adults know how to respond to even the most inane adult conversation; small talk, chit-chat, call it what you will, makes up the bulk of their daily conversations. And yet, when it comes to talking with children, so many adults forget to extend the very same courtesy. And children benefit by even the most casual exchange, even if it does not contain any substantial knowledge or opinion. The parent who responds to a child's statement with, "That's nice, dear," is not responding with real interest and therefore is discouraging verbal communication.

The fact is that few children are not consumed by curiosity during their younger years. They have an inexhaustible supply of questions, which they relentlessly put to parents. The inquisition can be time consuming, taxing, and even irritating; but those endless questions are the expression of a marvelous curiosity about life that can be converted into the richest kind of learning. If, on the other hand, the child meets with a negative attitude in home or school, his curiosity is usually dissipated by pre-adolescence.

Parents are in a position to nurture this natural curiosity and to use it as a tool for developing the child's skills and knowledge. However, the answers are most valuable at the time the questions are asked. Delay in dealing with a child's question may discourage the habit of questioning. Of course it is not always possible for a parent to drop everything in order to answer a child's question-nor is it always advisable. But children, especially the younger ones, are not curious on schedule, and their parents should be flexible enough to deal with most questions when they come up.

Not all questions should be handled in the same way. There are many kinds of questions, asked for many different reasons, and each demands its own kind of answer:

"When are we going to visit grandma?"

"How big is the moon?"

"What makes an airplane fly?"

"What is light?"

"Why are there wars?"

"What makes the wind?"

"Do you love me?"

The first calls for a simple answer of fact.

The second can also be answered by a factual statement, but shouldn't. Most people probably do not know offhand the dimensions of the moon. Since there is nothing wrong with not knowing the answers to this question-or any question, for that matter- the parent should unhesitatingly admit, "I don't know." Of course, if it is asked by a very young child to whom dimensions would be meaningless and to whom size is a very limited concept anyway, the question can be used to develop understanding of relative size. If it is asked by an older child, for whom actual dimensions might have some significance, an answer such as, "I don't know. Let's see if we can find out in the encyclopedia," develops many important skills and attitudes simultaneously.

"What makes an airplane fly?" is a question that father may be able to answer with ease and even a good deal of enjoyment, but his very knowledge of and interest in the subject may lead him to answer too fully and leave his child bewildered and discouraged-or, worse yet, bored. When parents are answering a question from their own store of knowledge they must be careful to pitch their response at a level within the intellectual reach of the child.

The question, "What is light?" is wondrously simple to ask but exceedingly difficult to answer. Not only is it likely that a parent will not know the answer, but both parent and child may well come away from the encyclopedia explanation with a very unsatisfactory understanding of what light is. This could discourage further investigation of the subject, but instead it might well be used as a motivation for a long-range project. For children should learn that not all questions can be answered in a simple sentence or two; that often the simplest questions require the most complex answers; that our knowledge and understanding of some problems require long-term investigation and consideration.

"Why are there wars?" is similar to the question about light in that the answer is complex. But since the answer lies in the realm of the social rather than the physical sciences, opinion must play a more important role in determining the answer. Here it would be helpful if the child could be made aware of the existence of many opinions on the subject. This is not to say that the parent should withhold his own opinion. But he might better take the opportunity to help the child understand the nature of opinion and how it is distinguished from fact; this is a very valuable instrument of thinking.

"What makes the wind?" is the kind of question that lends itself to demonstration or even experimentation. With a young child any simple demonstration that creates a breeze may suffice to answer the question. An older child may be challenged by a homegrown experiment to fashion some answers himself.

Open the top and bottom of the window of a warm, preferably smoke-filled room; feel the cool air rush in at the bottom; watch the smoke rise and move out at the top; and ask, "Why?" Any answer, of course, must account for the fact that there is no cool air coming in at the top and no warm air, or smoke, going out at the bottom. The child who thus learns that the warm air has risen and that the cool air has rushed in to take its place will have a substantial understanding of one of the basic factors behind wind and weather. Moreover, he will have had an invaluable exercise in thinking.

"Do you love me?" Of course this is in a completely different kind of question. Parents should always be concerned with discovering why the child asks such questions and with elimination the causes of the anxiety it expresses.

This is not to imply that talk between parents and children should be limited to answering children's questions, or that conversation with children need be centered around giving, finding, or sharing information. Again, parents and children should engage in "small talk," much of which may be considered an aspect of play. Most important is that communication take place and that parents be conscious of the great impact of their talk upon the lives of their children.

Since play is such an integral part of the child's daily experience, parents can easily use verbal games to enrich that experience. Such games can be im-provished or adapted from traditional forms to suit the interest and level of the individual child.

Among the most common of these are guessing games. One such simple game involves guessing the answer to, "I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with [sat]." If the first guess is unsuccessful, a further qualifying statement may be made: "It is something you wear." Or a similar question may be permitted.

Another popular but more advanced guessing game is Coffee-Pot. In this game a verb is selected by one or more players and one person attempts to discover what it is by means of questions in which "Coffee-Pot" is used in place of the chosen verb. For example, suppose the verb chosen by the players is "to sleep." The questioner, substituting "Coffee-Pot" for the unknown verb, asks such questions as, "Does everyone Coffee-Pot? Do you Coffee-Pot at home? Do you Coffee-Pot at night? Do you Coffee-Pot with your eyes open?" and so on until he can identify the verb.

Even more advanced and more popular is Twenty Questions, a game in which the questioner attempts to identify with less than twenty questions the person or thing selected by the other players who answer these questions with simple yes or no.

Other guessing games that are not completely verbal involve identifying objects by feeling them while blindfolded, songs by hearing their rhythms tapped out, or foods by simply tasting them or smelling them while blindfolded.

Then there are what might be classified as memory games such as "I packed my sister's trunk." Any number can play this game. One player may begin by saying, "I packed my sister's trunk and in it I put a hat." The next player must say, "I packed my sister's trunk and in it I put a hat and a belt." The third player must repeat all of this and add yet another item, and so on, until someone makes a mistake in recalling all the items in the trunk.

Observation games are easily improvised. One player may attempt to name as many objects in the next room (or the medicine chest, or the refrigerator, etc.). Or a group of objects may be assembled on a table, studied and then covered and one player orally or several players in writing may attempt to name as many of these objects as they can.

Simple number games include Buzz, in which the slayers count off in succession, substituting the word Buzz for a predetermined number or its multiple. For example, if the number 5 is selected, the players would count "1...2...3...4...Buzz...6.7...8...9...Buzz..." until one misses. Another more versatile number game is one in which me player says, "I am thinking of two numbers which added together make seven," while a second layer tries to answer.

A very adaptable word game is "Geography." One layer begins with a geographic name (city, state, country, continent, mountain, river, ocean, etc.). The next player must name another beginning with the last letter of the first player's word. This same game can be played with the names of flowers, authors, titles, or other categories.

Paper and pencil word games are also popular and easily adapted to different ages. Making as many small words out of the letters of one big word will appeal to most children of reading age. Or making one word out of another in as few steps as possible by changing one letter at a time such as changing HEAD to FOOT as follows:

Head Heat Beat Boat Boot Foot

In addition, there are more formal word games such as crossword puzzles, anagrams, Scrabble and Jotto which are fine for children who are interested in them and capable of using them.

And, finally, there are informal games such as charades and simple riddles which are essentially verbal and always popular.

Another important part of the verbal environment in the home is story telling. While it is true that story telling is an art and that people vary a great deal in their ability to tell stories, it is also true that the average parent has more than enough ability to entertain children with stories. And it is surprising how much this ability develops with use.

Very young children have little sense of the past and are interested mainly in the present For example, young children will enjoy a story about what is happening to them at the moment: "Here comes a big spoonful of applesauce heading right for Johnny's mouth. And now here comes some milk to wash it down..." Simple accounts of the very recent past also appeal to them: "Yesterday Johnny and Mommy went to the park and Johnny played in the sandbox and Mommy sat on the bench and all of a sudden there was a very loud noise and a big red fire engine raced by ..."

As the child grows older he develops his understanding of the past, both real and fictional, and he can enjoy a greater variety of stories. Parents can draw on their own storehouse of experiences-especially those from their own childhood-and of stories they have read and heard.

Beyond the talk of parents are other aspects of their verbal lives. A good verbal environment is one in which books, magazines, and newspapers are frequently read. For as in many other areas of a child's life, parents serve as the principal models for the development of the child's reading habits.

Do both parents read books? Good books? Often? Do they have a library of good books at home? Do they share what they find in books with each other? With their children? Do they read serious, well-written magazines that deal with significant issues? Do they read a good newspaper every day-one which carries the important national and international news and not mainly local gossip? In short, do both parents read as a means of keeping their minds alert, well-informed and growing, or do they let their minds accumulate the mental rust that comes from disuse? If parents are not readers, how and why do they expect their children to be readers?

We have already seen that reading is a basic ingredient of success on an I Q test, as well as an important factor in academic success in school. Much has been said in recent years about the teaching of reading in our schools. Critics of some of the methods by which reading is taught today point to what seems to be a growing number of children who have difficulties in learning how to read, and insist that this is the result of "progressive education." There is no need to go into that controversy here, except to point out that these critics largely ignore the role that our changing environment has played in creating this reading problem.

Because most of us have lived through it, we are almost unaware of the revolution that has taken place in America's cultural environment during the last quarter century. In that period, three powerful mass media have developed with amazing speed, in amazing breadth: the movies, radio, and television. These media have become the principal means of cultural communication for the overwhelming mass of the American people. All three require no reading ability whatsoever. All three have tended to supplant reading in the cultural and intellectual life of the country.

Millions upon millions of adults who know how to read, do not. They watch television, go to see movies, and listen to the radio; but they do not read books. Yet among them are many who are distressed by the problems their children have in learning to read and, after having finally learned how, the lack of inclination to read among most of these children.

David Riesman, the noted sociologist, recently called books the "gunpowder of the mind."2 To extend his analogy, reading can be called the artillery of intelligence. This artillery is often feeble indeed if not sparked by the gunpowder of the books. Parents can help their children become book readers in a non-reading culture by reading books themselves.

Reading aloud to children should be standard practice in every family. Children can gain so much from this-interest in reading, practice in listening, interest in new subjects and ideas, opportunities for questions and discussions, exercise in thinking and imagining-that it should be a regular part of the environment from early childhood to adolescence.

Moreover, children must be provided with suitable books of their own. The selection of books for children should be guided by such varying factors as the child's age, interests, his reading ability, the cost of the book, the quality of its production, or the good taste of the story. There are a number of excellent lists of books for children which parents can consult before selecting books. The following are among the best and most inexpensive of these booklists. The names and addresses of the organizations and agencies from whom each list can be purchased, as well as the price of each, is included:

Adventuring With Books (Revised 1956). A list for elementary school children. National Council of Teachers of English, 704 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois. $.75

Bibliography of Books for Children (Revised 1956). A selected list of over 1,400 books. Association for Childhood Education International, 1200 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Washington 5, D.C. $1.25

Books For You (1956). A list for high school students. National Council of Teachers of English, 704 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois. $.50

Catalog of the Best Books for Children (1956). A list of over 2,000 books, classified by age and subject.

Junior Reviewers, 11 Eaton Court, Wellesley Hills 82, Mass. $1.00

Children's Books . . . For $1.25 or Less (Revised 1957). Association for Childhood Education International, 1200 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Washington 5, D.C. $.75

Children's Books Too Good to Miss (Revised 1953). The Press of Western Reserve University, 2035 Adelbert Road, Cleveland 6, Ohio. $1.00

The Children's Bookshelf-A Booklist for Parents (1953). United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Social Security Administration, Children's Bureau. Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D.C. $.25

Growing Up With Books. 250 books classified by age and subject. Library Journal, 62 West 45 Street, New York 36, New York. $.10

Your Reading (1954). A list for junior high school students. National Council of Teachers of English, 704 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois. $.60

Any one of these lists will provide parents with a veritable mine of information about appropriate books for children.

Another excellent source of help in this area is the local librarian, a specialist whose skills and knowledge are available to all and are used by so very few.

Speaking of libraries, regular joint parent-child visits to the local library are one of the best means of interesting children in books and reading.

Other significant aspects of a child's verbal environment are the mass media: comic books, television, movies, and radio. In the first of these reading is minimized, and in the others it is eliminated entirely. Nevertheless they are important sources of the child's verbal development and should be accepted as such by parents even though many negative influences are associated with them. Since children are going to read comics, watch television, go to the movies, and listen to the radio, the problem is one of influencing their choices so that they will be exposed to the better offerings of these media.

Constructive influence cannot be exerted arbitrarily or it will probably fail; and developing tastes and interests is a long-term undertaking. Parents might well look first at their child's TV programs, movies, and comics and discuss them with him; often the subject matter can be used as points of departure for developing new interests. Second, parents can encourage the child to watch certain other programs and movies with them. Of course these should be interesting and enjoyable to the child. A child's standard for evaluating entertainment is based on the nature of his interests and the level of his experience. The more experience a child has with more literate material, the less likely he is to endure the poorer offerings.

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