Why parents are best

Why parents’ help is best Parents can focus on their child, spending some one-to-one time with them. Parents can fit English sessions into any part of their day to suit their child and themselves. Parents can regulate the length of an English session and select activities to fit their child’s needs, interests and ability to concentrate. Parents know their child intimately and can intuitively judge the type of English talking suitable for their individual ways of picking up language. Parents can best interpret their child’s moods and respond to them. Children have days when they eagerly absorb language and others when they find it difficult to concentrate. Parents can introduce more fun, as they are working with an individual, not a class. Parents can introduce English culture into family life, so broadening their child’s outlook and understanding of their own culture as well as things English. Parents, using a softer, caring voice and simpler language, unconsciously shepherd their young child through an activity by: a running commentary (talking aloud) on what is going on: ‘Let’s put it here.’ ‘There.’ ‘Look. I’ve put it on the table.’ ‘Which one do you like?’ [pause] ‘Oh, I like this one.’ ‘The red one’ repeating useful language more often than in adult talk: repetition introduced naturally helps the child to confirm what they are picking up – it is not boring for the child, even if it is for the parent reflecting back what their child has said and enlarging it: Child: ‘Yellow’; Parent: ‘You like the yellow one.’ ‘Here it is.’ ‘Here’s the yellow one.’ ‘Let’s see. yellow, red and here’s the brown one.’ ‘I like the brown one, do you?’ [pause] talking more slowly and stressing new words naturally without altering the melody of the language. ‘Which rhyme shall we say today?’ ‘ You choose.’ [pause for child to select] using the same phrases each time to manage English sessions as well as activities and games. As children’s understanding increases, these basic phrases are enlarged: ‘Let’s play Simon says.’ ‘Stand there.’ ‘In front of me.’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘Are you ready?’ adding facial expression and gesture to aid understanding using eye contact in one-to-one exchanges to reassure and also to encourage a hesitant child to speak pausing for a longer time as children need to think about what they hear before they are ready to reply. When speaking is still limited, exaggerated pauses can add fun or hold interest in a game.

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