Dr. Tiegerman Speaks

A word is far from something simple.  In reality, a word is a concept; a word is a symbol.  It has a speech form “CAT” that represents a group of characteristics which you have learned to recognize as a very young child: four legs, whiskers, furry and says, “meow.”  Each of these features or characteristics is stored in your child’s brain for reference purposes to compare with other things that he or she learns: four legs, furry and says ‘woof.”  So why are words so important to a child’s development?

Each word is encoded along with its descriptive information in a giant network system within the brain.  The more features and characteristics added to the network, the more complex your child’s language is likely to become.  Consider that each new word gets stored in a card catalogue that allows its features to be cross-referenced with information on other cards in the brain’s library.  The storage system represents both short and long-term memory, which can be retrieved to label objects, actions and people he/she sees. 

There is a period of time during which a child’s vocabulary develops rapidly.  Between 24 and 36 months, hundreds of words are learned and stored for future reference.  By 5 or 6 years of age, children’s total vocabulary has increased to around 15,000 words.  It is interesting to note that most of the words that children acquire during this period of time are names for people and things.  Verbs tend to develop later because they describe relationships between people and objects.  In middle childhood, children continue to add words to their working vocabulary at the rate of 5,000 to 10,000 words a year. 

Children act as little scientists during this period of rapid word development.  They learn words within natural contexts.  They experience what words mean and how words are used by others.  Research has shown that children who have parents who talk to, read to and play with them frequently have a much larger working vocabulary, develop more complex sentences and learn to read more easily.  So language development is all about exposure and experience and home is an important language learning laboratory! 

Words actually change a child’s brain in terms of its operation.  Words change the neurological functioning of the brain making your child’s thinking and reasoning more complex and abstract.  Information in the brain then creates a highway of aisles between the stacks of information.  The greater amount of information embedded or stored, the more complex the brain’s highway system will become.

So remember, a word is not just a word.  It is descriptive information that is stored in different parts of the brain.  Every time your child learns a new word through talking or reading he or she gets smarter.  Words are used to express ideas and feelings.  As your child’s language becomes more complex, the better his problem solving and reasoning skills.  Children think in words by means of words.  If you want to help your child become smarter talk about words.  Talk about talking.  Talk about reading and talk about thinking.  Becoming smart is all about learning new words…lots of them.  School success is based on language, so is IQ.

  The author is Founder and Executive Director of the School for Language and Communication Development

There have been ongoing articles targeting the special education system with two major complaints:  escalating costs and unreasonable parents.  Let’s address these issues with the intent that an understanding of each will finally put to rest these vicious attacks.

            Since money is always a critical issue, let’s deal with it first.  When resources are limited and taxes are high, there is always a public ground swell that special education is “getting out of hand.”  Stop for a moment and think rationally about this statement.  Compared to what?  The only comparison that has been made historically is between the costs related to educating typical and special education children.  Obviously, children with disabilities need specialized services such as speech, occupational and physical therapies so programs will cost more.  The comparison between special and general education is specious particularly because children with disabilities (i.e., about 6 percent) represent such a small minority group within the general student population.  Now consider a real comparison with supporting data that are rarely provided by the critics of special education.  Let’s compare the special education system to the prison system. 

            The Pew Center on the States, reported that in 2007, 62,620 people were placed behind bars in New York State.  Interestingly enough, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs reported approximately the same number of children (ages 3-5 years) receiving services in special education – 60,156 children.  New York State spent over $2.6 billion in this fiscal year on correctional services.  New York State certainly did not spend anything close to $2.6 billion on either early intervention and/or preschool special education services.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics: Special Report on State Prison Expenditures indicated that New York State has one of the highest annual operating costs for inmates -$36,835.  In addition, the annual cost per inmate in New York City is $55,300 which is significantly higher than the cost of educating children with disabilities even with all of their related services and therapies.  New York State’s poverty rate at 14.4 percent is above the national average which is nothing to be proud of.  As a result, New York State ranks in the lowest quartile and its poverty rate is higher than all of the states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Mid-West Regions of the country. 

Finally, the incidence of learning disabilities among the general population is around 5% but in prison, the number of individuals with learning disabilities is estimated to be over 50%.  What does this tell us?  The Department’s goal is to be below the national average for children receiving special education services.  Children with disabilities are not “statistics” who will conveniently disappear.  Children who do not receive the educational services they need in preschool and elementary school are at greater risk for becoming dropouts and subsequently becoming involved in juvenile delinquency. 

            Certainly the investment in our children should be greater than the resources spent on our correctional system.  Are our children and their futures worth less than criminals who are receiving services in the New York State’s prison system?  Special education costs more than general education only because children need specialized services.  These are the services that critics are focused on?  If we have our priorities in the appropriate place special education does not cost too much.  The next time you read an article critical of special education costs send the writer an email about the correctional system.

A word is far from something simple.  In reality, a word is a concept; a word is a symbol.  It has a speech form “CAT” that represents a group of characteristics which you have learned to recognize as a very young child: four legs, whiskers, furry and says, “meow.”  Each of these features or characteristics is stored in your child’s brain for reference purposes to compare with other things that he or she learns: four legs, furry and says ‘woof.”  So why are words so important to a child’s development?

Each word is encoded along with its descriptive information in a giant network system within the brain.  The more features and characteristics added to the network, the more complex your child’s language is likely to become.  Consider that each new word gets stored in a card catalogue that allows its features to be cross-referenced with information on other cards in the brain’s library.  The storage system represents both short and long-term memory, which can be retrieved to label objects, actions and people he/she sees. 

There is a period of time during which a child’s vocabulary develops rapidly.  Between 24 and 36 months, hundreds of words are learned and stored for future reference.  By 5 or 6 years of age, children’s total vocabulary has increased to around 15,000 words.  It is interesting to note that most of the words that children acquire during this period of time are names for people and things.  Verbs tend to develop later because they describe relationships between people and objects.  In middle childhood, children continue to add words to their working vocabulary at the rate of 5,000 to 10,000 words a year. 

Children act as little scientists during this period of rapid word development.  They learn words within natural contexts.  They experience what words mean and how words are used by others.  Research has shown that children who have parents who talk to, read to and play with them frequently have a much larger working vocabulary, develop more complex sentences and learn to read more easily.  So language development is all about exposure and experience and home is an important language learning laboratory! 

Words actually change a child’s brain in terms of its operation.  Words change the neurological functioning of the brain making your child’s thinking and reasoning more complex and abstract.  Information in the brain then creates a highway of aisles between the stacks of information.  The greater amount of information embedded or stored, the more complex the brain’s highway system will become.

So remember, a word is not just a word.  It is descriptive information that is stored in different parts of the brain.  Every time your child learns a new word through talking or reading he or she gets smarter.  Words are used to express ideas and feelings.  As your child’s language becomes more complex, the better his problem solving and reasoning skills.  Children think in words by means of words.  If you want to help your child become smarter talk about words.  Talk about talking.  Talk about reading and talk about thinking.  Becoming smart is all about learning new words…lots of them.  School success is based on language, so is IQ.

  The author is Founder and Executive Director of the School for Language and Communication Development