WHEN A TREE falls in a deserted forest, does it make a sound?
It's an old riddle for which there is no answer. The transmission of sound depends equally on the originator and the receiver. In human language, it requires a speaker and a listener.
Listening - to falling trees, to snoring grandparents, to story-telling parents, to bawling baby sisters - comes to children long before writing and reading. Listening and its oral counterpart, speaking, are the primary means by which children learn until they read well.
Yet they're the lost language arts, all but ignored in many households and schools. One reason is that they can't be measured on statewide tests like the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. Oral skills are listed among the academic "content standards" of Maryland and some other states, but they're taught on the honor system.
What children talk about and listen to from the moment of their debut in the maternity ward is important. "Children learn from the back and forth of speaking and listening," says a new book, "Speaking & Listening," even when they are on the listening end. "They learn by observing how other people react to what they say."
Speaking, of course, is an esteemed cultural value in the United States. Doubters need only think of the importance we give to a child's first words, recording them for the ages in baby books and family Bibles. To do well in school - and in life - children have to speak with precision and confidence.
Yet the quiet child often is held up as a model of good behavior. That, says the book, "may be a cause for concern, not celebration. All children need opportunities to talk a lot to develop word knowledge and language skills."
Put another way, children need to be seen and heard.
"Speaking & Listening" was published in April by a Washington, D.C.-based academic program, New Standards, and paid for by the federal government. In 276 pages (and four CD-ROMs), the experts outline where, when and how we should expect children to talk at each of three major developmental stages: preschool; kindergarten and first grade; and second and third grade.
It's interesting how the report came about. A few years ago, New Standards set out to develop national standards for reading and writing. When "Reading & Writing Grade by Grade" was published in 1999, the experts who had participated realized they hadn't done justice to oral language. So they went back to the drawing board and engaged Catherine Snow, a Harvard professor and an authority on children's language development, to head the effort.
"Speaking & Listening" is an easy read, giving concrete suggestions to parents and teachers at a time when many very young children are in schools. The amount of time 3- to 5-year-olds spend in school has doubled over the past two decades to 20 hours a week, according to a University of Michigan study, and three-quarters of the nation's 5-year-olds are cared for outside of private homes each day.
Some suggestions and tips from the book:
"Speaking & Listening" and the CD-ROMs are available for $45. The toll-free number to order is 888-361-6233.
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