The Spoken/Written Language Connection

When we think about language (*within literate societies), we consider two main branches: oral (spoken) and written: 

Spoken Language Is the Base

While it’s true that exposure to meaningful language and rich caregiver interactions are essential for spoken language development, the human brain is hardwired to acquire spoken language automatically.  This is why your baby says words that you haven’t explicitly taught them, and it's why your toddler combines words into new and surprising combinations all the time.  (Note: this automaticity also applies to other language modalities, such as sign language!) 

How Is Written Language Different?

In contrast, written language development is not hardwired in the brain.  This means that we must explicitly teach the skills necessary to develop literacy knowledge and to prepare our kids to be strong readers.  This also explains why most children don’t start to learn to read and write until school-age… until then, their brain just isn’t ready for the work of decoding and encoding!  

Think about the complexity of reading and writing… We must learn to recognize letters, map these letters to their sounds, and blend the sounds together to read or write words.  

Once we decode the words, we must derive meaning from the words we read.  Similarly, writing is a visual representation of spoken word.  This is where those baseline language skills come in-- we don't just read to decode, we must understand what we are reading (and express a meaningful message when we are writing!)

To Summarize: Written Language Skills Build on Top of the Spoken Language Foundation

This spoken/ written language connection is why targeting language abilities– from speaking and listening, to phonological awareness and speech sound production– will boost your child’s overall literacy skills.  

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